MOLINE — The Peoria Rivermen took a band of a dozen rookies on the road and knocked the Quad City Storm out of the playoffs Friday with a 3-1 victory in Game 2 of their SPHL playoff series.
The Rivermen got two goals from rookie right wing Zach Purcell and turned in a gritty five-on-three penalty kill to clinch the best-of-3 series.
They'll face the lowest-advancing seed in the SPHL semifinals next week.
Rivermen stayed with veteran goaltender Nick Latinovich in Game 2, and he gave them a shutout effort through 40 minutes.
Latinovich, knowing he had a young defense in front of him, froze the puck twice in the opening minutes, effectively settling down teammates and disrupting a Quad City team that came out buzzing.
The Storm made an effort to physically punish those Peoria defenders below the endline.
There were takedowns, holding, several things ignored by officials who allowed both teams to just battle things out in the first period.
Peoria's Andrew Poulias was alone in the low slot and tried a wrister that nearly beat goaltender Brent Moran, but the puck deflected off the shaft of his stick with about 8 minutes left in the period.
The Rivermen drew a power play and cashed in with 43 seconds left in the period when Garrett Devine held the zone in the high slot, spotted rookie Zach Purcell and threaded a terrific pass to spring him for a walk to the net.
Purcell walked to the doorstep and planted a shot over Moran's glove and into the top right corner of the net for 1-0.
Jordan Ernst had a great chance in the first two minutes of the second period, walking down the slot off a turnover, but the puck bounced away from his stick as he reached the doorstep.
The Rivermen drew another power play midway through the second period, and Carlos Fornaris had an uncontested shot from the inside edge of the right circle but Moran made a big save with his glove.
A turning point in the game
The Rivermen faced a five-on-three Quad City power play for 38 seconds late in the second period and erased the whole thing, blocking four shots in a gutty 30-second sequence.
Then 65 seconds later the Rivermen took a 2-0 lead at 15:11 on another goal by the rookie Purcell off a turnover.
Quad City's Nicola Levesque sent the puck from the left corner directly to Purcell between the hashmarks, and he buried it past Moran.
Peoria killed off a third Quad City power play at the end of the period to preserve the two-goal edge through 40 minutes.
The Storm front
Quad City gets on the board with a doorstep rebound from Devin Sanders off an initial wraparound attempt 53 seconds into the third ...
