FARGO, N.D. – The Fargo Force used a six-goal second period to defeat the Tri-City Storm 8-1 on Friday night at Scheels Arena. 

Tri-City's loss guarantees a Storm fifth or sixth place finish in the Western Conference standings, meaning Tri-City will travel for the first round of the Clark Cup Playoffs next weekend. 

Fargo (37-19-5, 79 pts) has won back-to-back games. The eight goals allowed by Tri-City (26-29-6, 58 pts) were a season-high.

Fargo broke the scoreless tie 34 seconds into regulation when Bryce Mattern tipped a Cullen McCrate right point shot as he traveled through the right circle. The puck bounced under the left arm of Tri-City netminder Michal Pradel for Mattern's seventh goal of the campaign. 

Following a scoreless remainder of the first, the Force rattled off six goals in the second period to lead 7-0 after forty minutes. 

The first three second period goals were scored in a span of one minute and seven seconds. Kolin Sisson made it a 2-0 game with a breakaway tally at the 1:25 mark of the period. Nate Delladonna added his 16th of the year 30 seconds later. Gavin Uhlenkamp produced a goal 37 seconds after that to make it 4-0. 

Later in the frame, Fargo scored three more times in a span of 46 seconds. Mason West collected a power play marker at the 12:52 mark of the period after stuffing a puck over Pradel's left shoulder to make it 5-0. Pradel exited the game after West's goal and was replaced by Owen Nelson. 

Not long after West's tally, Axel Lofgren scored his tenth of the year on a shot from the blue line. Mattern found the back of the net 21 seconds later on an in-tight shot that bounced beyond Nelson to finish the frame's scoring. 

Tri-City earned their lone goal 13:40 into the third. A Connor Brown shot from the center point was tipped by Ashton Dahms through Fargo goaltender Sam Hrenak. Dahms's marker was his 16th of the campaign. 

Sisson tallied the night's final goal for Fargo with just over two minutes to go. The Providence commit angled around Storm defenders to approach Nelson, where he tucked a shot past the Hudson, Wisconsin native's glove side to make it 8-1. 

Hrenak improved to 7-1-1 with Fargo this season after stopping 25 of 26 Storm shots. Pradel appeared in 32:52 of action and halted 21 of 26 Force attempts. Nelson saw 27:08 in the game, shutting down 18 of 21 Fargo shots. 

Six Force players finished with multiple points: Mattern (2-1-3), Sisson (2-1-3), Lofgren (1-2-3), West (1-1-2), Lindberg (0-2-2) and McCrate (0-2-2). 

Up next: Tri-City concludes its regular season on Saturday at Fargo. Puckdrop is set for 6:05 pm CT. 

The matchup will be broadcast on FloHockey and YouTube (audio only).