KEARNEY, Neb. –  The Sioux Falls Stampede broke a 2-2 tie with a trio of third period goals to defeat the Tri-City Storm 5-2 on Saturday night at Viaero Center. The Stampede swept the two-game weekend series between the teams. 

Sioux Falls (35-15-2, 74 pts) won its ninth consecutive road game. Tri-City (25-23-5, 57 pts) has dropped four straight contests. 

Sioux Falls tallied its game winner to break the 2-2 tie at the 3:39 mark of the third. Brock Schultz sent a right wing shot toward the Tri-City net that weirdly deflected off a Storm defender on the backdoor. The puck tricked past Storm goaltender Owen Nelson to hand Sioux Falls its first lead of the night. 

The Stampede doubled their lead under two minutes later. Logan Renkowski retrieved the puck in the left circle of the Storm zone, then popped a shot over Nelson's blocker side for his 36th goal of the season. Renkowski's 36 tallies are second-most among USHL players.

Down two goals with approximately three minutes remaining, the Storm pulled Nelson for an extra attacker. Sioux Falls found the vacant cage with just under 90 seconds left when Brent Solomon shot the puck home for his 17th goal of the year. 

Despite the third period takeover by Sioux Falls, the first two frames were relatively even on the scoreboard. 

Tri-City broke the scoreless tie just 28 seconds into regulation. As the Storm worked in their offensive zone, an open Carson Pilgrim retrieved a pass at the bottom of the left circle, then slapped a one-timer past Sioux Falls goaltender Linards Feldbergs for his 17th goal of the campaign. 

Sioux Falls evened the contest in the midst of an offensive zone possession about seven minutes into the opening period. A Tommy Holtby long range shot from the left wing deflected off a stick in front of the Tri-City net and bounced over the right shoulder of Nelson. It was Holtby's first marker since February 7. 

The Storm jumped back ahead just past the halfway mark of the second. Cam Springer possessed the puck at the bottom of the right circle in the Sioux Falls zone, then slowly crept toward the Stampede net. As he approached the right post, the Bowling Green commit set up Ashton Dahms with a beautiful backdoor feed. Dahms slapped the puck past Feldbergs for his 15th goal of the season. 

Sioux Falls re-tied the game at 2-2 with 13:57 gone by in the second period. Off a left circle feed from Christian Chouha, Noah Mannausau ripped a snapshot top shelf for his first goal since December 13. The shot, which came from near the slot, snuck past Nelson's glove side. 

Feldbergs picked up his league-leading 29th win of the year in the Stampede net after stopping 25 of 27 Storm shots. Nelson suffered the loss after halting 28 of 32 Sioux Falls attempts. 

Renkowski (1-1-2) was the only skater to finish with multiple points. 

Up next: Tri-City hosts Omaha in a two-game home series across Friday (7:05 pm CT puckdrop) and Saturday (6:05 pm CT puckdrop) next weekend at Viaero Center. 

Kids tickets are $5.00 on Friday with the purchase of an adult ticket courtesy of the FunZone Arcade inside of Pizza Ranch Kearney. 

The Storm are additionally offering Nebraska Lottery Family Packs for both games. Get four tickets, four hot dogs and four cans of soda for $44. Each pack also includes ten Nebraska Lottery scratch-off tickets. Limited quantities are available.

Fans can purchase tickets at stormhockey.com.