The Peoria Rivermen came close to giving away a three-goal lead to the Bloomington Thunder, but did just enough to escape with a 4-3 victory.

Peoria led by three goals at one point and ended with the victory. The largest advantage in the game came when the Rivermen's Garrett Vermeersch's scored at 3:56 in the second period to put Peoria up 3-0.

Nick Wheeler had two goals to lead the Rivermen to victory. Wheeler's tallies came at 4:42 into the first period to make the score 1-0 Peoria and 13:24 into the third to make the score 4-2 Peoria.

Peoria's penalty kill unit could not stop Bloomington's power play, which converted on two of three opportunities. The Rivermen relied on a core group of players for most of their offense, as Parker Stanfield, Vermeersch and Wheeler took 17 of the team's 33 shots. Peoria got an offensive boost from its blueliners, who contributed two goals during the game.

In addition, Peoria received assists from Nick Prockow, who had two and Cole Ruwe, Adam Feniak, Joe Schiller, Adam Hartley, Alexandre Mentink, and Matt Viola, who contributed one a piece.

The Thunder's penalty kill was spotless, allowing no goals on four Peoria power plays. Bloomington relied on a core group of players for most of its offense, as Burke Gallimore, Kevin Walrod and Pat Schafer took 20 of the team's 34 shots.

Bloomington also got points from Curtis Megginson, who also had one goal and one assist to lead the team in points. Other players who recorded assists for Bloomington were Ron Cramer, Paul DAgostino, Tyler Noseworthy, and Sy Nutkevitch, who each chipped in one.

Eric Levine rejected 31 shots on goal for the Rivermen. Peoria incurred 10 minutes in penalty time with five minors. The Thunder's Max Strang stopped 29 shots out of the 33 that he faced. Bloomington incurred 18 minutes in penalty time with four minors.