FARGO, N.D. – The Tri-City Storm begin a two-game series with the Fargo Force on Friday night at Scheels Arena. Puckdrop is set for 7:05 pm CT. 

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

YouTube link: https://youtube.com/live/pXEOadaV17A?feature=share

Tri-City (26-28-6, 58 pts, 5th place Western Conf.) 

Clark Cup Playoffs: The Storm clinched their eighth straight berth to the Clark Cup Playoffs on Friday, March 6. With two games to play in the regular season, Tri-City is poised to finish as either the fourth, fifth, or sixth seed in the Western Conference. The Storm will compete in a best-of-three Western Conference first round series the weekend of April 10-12. Tri-City would host all games in this series should they finish as the fourth seed. The Storm would travel should they finish at fifth or sixth place in the standings. 

A Lincoln win in any form tonight versus Des Moines would guarantee Tri-City a first round playoff series on the road. 

A Storm regulation loss this evening also guarantees Tri-City a road series in the first round. 

The Storm would additionally travel for the first round with an overtime or shootout loss and Lincoln overtime or shootout loss tonight. 

Previously:

• Defeated Sioux City 4-2 on road Sunday

• Sunday: Gairin Michalski, Carson Pilgrim, Noah LaPointe, Mason Jenson (EN) produced Storm goals

• Sunday: Goaltender Quinn Beumer picked up his second win in three career USHL starts, halting 23 of 25 Musketeer shots

Team Notes:

• Sunday's win snapped a ten-game losing streak, the second-longest on record in franchise history behind team's 19-game losing streak during 2008-2009 season

• Ten-game losing streak tied for second-longest by a USHL team this season (Waterloo)

• Despite ranking last in the USHL this season at 13.4%, power play is 5-15 (33.3%) over the past seven games

• Penalty kill (83.3%) ranks second in USHL

• Averaging 11.15 penalty minutes per game, the second-least among USHL teams…Fargo is least penalized team in league at 10.10 penalty minutes per game

• Eight shorthanded goals this season are third among USHL teams

Player Notes: 

• Bode Laylin: four points (1-3-4) over his past four games…38 points this season are seventh among USHL defenseman…11 goals are third among USHL blue liners…six power play goals tie for first among league defenseman

• Carson Pilgrim: four points (1-3-4) over his past four games…has scored in three straight road games…team scoring leader logged first multi-point game since February 15 on Sunday

• Michal Pradel: four shutouts tie for first among USHL goaltenders….914 save percentage ranks fourth…2.65 goals against average places eighth

• Owen Nelson: logged .927 save percentage over his last eight starts (293 saves on 316 shots)

• Quinn Beumer: 87 saves on 93 shots across the first three starts of his USHL career, a .935 save percentage

• Cam Springer: five shorthanded points this season place second among USHL players

• Oliver Ozogany: 102 shots this season rank fifth among USHL rookies

• Carson Pilgrim (18-23-41) leads team in scoring…Bode Laylin (11-27-38) follows

Fargo (36-19-5, 77 pts, 2nd place Western Conf.)

• Clinched berth to Clark Cup Playoffs and number two seed in Western Conference for first-round bye

• Split two-game home series with Dubuque last weekend…fell 3-1 on Friday, won 6-2 Saturday

• Saturday: Luke McNamara, Stepan Cerny, Graham Jones, Cullen McCrate, Samuel Hrenak (goaltender - EN), Graham Jones (EN) scored goals

• Saturday: Hrenak stopped 21 of 23 Dubuque shots

• Kolin Sisson (19-33-52) leads Force in scoring…Graham Jones (26-24-50) follows

Season series: Friday's matchup is the fifth of six regular season meetings between the Storm and Force. Tri-City is 2-2-0 against Fargo this year, including 1-1-0 at Scheels Arena. The teams last met when they split a two-game set across January 2-3 in Fargo.