KEARNEY, Neb. –  J.J. Monteiro notched a four-point game to tie his career high and two other Sioux Falls players logged multiple points as the Stampede defeated the Tri-City Storm 6-3 on Friday night at Viaero Center.

The Waterloo Black Hawks regulation loss at Chicago on Friday handed the Storm a Clark Cup Playoff berth, however. Tri-City has clinched a berth in the Clark Cup Playoffs for the eighth consecutive season. 

First round playoff matchups began as soon as Thursday, April 9 and feature best-of-three series that see the #3 seed take on the #6 seed and #4 seed face the #5 seed in each conference. The #1 and #2 seeds receive first round byes and automatically advance to the conference semifinals. All first round games will be played at the higher seed's home arena. 

The Storm end the regular season on Saturday, April 4 at Fargo. 

Ticket information for potential 2026 Clark Cup playoff games at Viaero Center will be announced in the coming weeks. 

Sioux Falls (35-15-2, 72 pts) grew its USHL active-best road winning streak to eight games. Tri-City (25-22-5, 55 pts) has lost three straight contests for the first time since dropping six in a row between November 22-December 5. 

Sioux Falls broke the ice with a power play goal at the 14:43 mark of the opening period. Off a feed from Tobias Ohman, Jake Prunty blasted a one-timer past Storm netminder Owen Nelson from the right side of the Tri-City slot for his third goal of the campaign. 

The Stampede doubled their advantage just under four minutes into the second. After a strong feed by Brent Solomon, Thomas Zocco set up Monteiro in front of the Storm net. Monteiro eventually slid a low shot beyond Nelson for his 14th goal of the season. 

Tri-City's Connor Brown was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for slew footing just past the halfway mark of the second period. The Storm produced two shorthanded goals within the first minute of the penalty to tie the game. 

Brecken Smith got the Storm on the board after collecting a right wing feed from Cam Springer and skating to the Sioux Falls zone. As he approached the bottom of the right circle, Smith flung a snapshot beyond Stampede netminder Linards Feldbergs for his 12th marker of the year. 

Tri-City evened the contest 37 seconds later. During a 2-on-1 rush, Springer fed Bode Laylin on the left wing of the Sioux Falls zone. Laylin collected the pass then ripped a snapshot beyond Feldbergs for his career-high 10th goal of the season. Six of the St. Thomas commit's ten goals on the year have come during special teams situations. 

The Storm took their first lead of the night and tallied their final goal of the game on a Springer tally at the 6:03 mark of the third. Ashton Dahms shipped the puck to the back door and Springer, who pushed it past Feldbergs for his first goal since January 30. 

Sioux Falls piled on four more tallies thereafter to take command of the game. 

Zocco re-tied the matchup just over a minute after Springer's marker. Off a faceoff to the right of Nelson, Zocco collected a Monteiro feed from the bottom of the right circle. The Staten Island, New York native then slipped a shot under Nelson's back side for his 17th goal of the season. 

Sioux Falls' game winner was tabulated at the 12:37 mark of the third. Brock Schultz caught a Monteiro pass at the side of the net, then flipped a shot on Nelson. After a pad save, Schultz regained possession off the rebound and popped the puck above Nelson's right shoulder for his 22nd goal of the season. 

Down 4-3 with approximately two minutes remaining, the Storm pulled Nelson for an extra attacker. Sioux Falls tallied two empty net goals, from Monteiro and Christian Chouha respectively, to jump ahead 6-3.

Feldbergs stopped 16 of 19 Storm shots in what was his 28th win of the season. Nelson halted 35 of 39 Stampede shots in the Tri-City crease. 

Springer (1-2-3) was Tri-City's only player with multiple points. The Bowling Green commit's three points were a career high. 

Aside from Monteiro's (2-2-4) four-point night, Sioux Falls also received multi-point performances from Zocco (1-1-2) and Solomon (0-2-2). 

Up next: Tri-City ends its two-game home series with Sioux Falls on Saturday at Viaero Center. Puckdrop is set for 6:05 pm CT. 

Fans can purchase tickets at stormhockey.com.