By Dale Miller
dale.miller@theindependent.com

Even on a night in which it beat Green Bay 4-1 for a second-straight home win and captain Mario Lamoureux tied the team record for career points, the Storm had an injury that made things a little less positive.

Already down to 11 forwards due to injuries, Tri-City lost Philip Ginand after he suffered a torn hamstring against his former team.

"It puts a damper on it," Storm coach Bliss Littler said.

But Lamoureux's performance shined brightly. He assisted on three of Tri-City's goals to push his career total to 120 points, tying the mark set by Bill Thomas.

"It means I've been here a while," said Lamoureux of his record. "It's exciting. It was nice to get a win. It gets a bad taste out of our mouth. We want to finish strong these last games."

Lamoureux already holds the team records in games played (225, 36 more than linemate Alex Hudson) and career assists (78). He knew he was nearing the career points mark.

"I knew it was getting close, but I didn't know how close," he said.

Another possible accomplishment was spoiled by the Gamblers (11-33-5). Taylor McReynolds scored on a rebound with 6 minutes, 15 seconds left to deny Storm goaltender Nick Hopper his first career shutout.

Hopper remains snake bitten in trying to hold teams to no goals, leaving Littler to consider drastic measures.

"Before the third period (next time) I'm going to tell everyone he's never had (a shutout) to double jinx him," he joked. "He played well. We made a mistake (on the goal)."

Tri-City (20-27-2) took control with a pair of second-period goals. Hudson beat screened Green Bay goalie Neil Conway on a wrister from top of the left circle at 8:33.

At 11:26, Troy Power swept a rebound past Conway stick side to make it 2-0.

The Storm added a pair of power-play goals in the third. Troy Mattila tipped in the puck from the front of the net at 2:20, just 10 seconds into Tri-City's man advantage.

Cameron Cooper's power-play goal made it 4-0 at 8:27 and came off Lamoureux's record-tying assist.

"We did a lot of things right," Littler said. "Obviously we got good goaltending. Our (defensemen) moved the puck up the ice. We did a nice job on their power play."

He was happy to see a strong effort even with the team's playoff chances slim and fading.

"I know with our injuries and spot in the standings it'd be easy to pack it in," Littler said. "Our goal every day is to keep getting better. Quitting is a bad road to go down. I don't see us quitting."

Lamoureux, a North Dakota recruit whose standout Storm career may be 11 games from ending, echoed Littler's feelings.

"We just want to improve," he said. "We're not out of the playoffs yet, but it'll take a lot of luck (to make it). We have to win every game here on out.

"We want to play solid in our last 11 games and keep getting better every day."

Storm Watch

Tri-City did get a reinforcement for the depleted forward corps. Anthony DeCenzo made his Storm debut after the completion of his high school season. "He's alright," Littler said. "I thought he showed some signs that he'll be able to play in this league." On the same night that Lamoureux tied the career scoring record, older brother Pierre Paul Lamoureux broke the team record for penalty minutes in a season. He now has 184. Tri-City trails Sioux City by 14 points. The Musketeers fell out of three-way tie for second into fourth in the West Division on Friday after losing to Ohio. Tri-City is now 14-2-0 at home all-time against Green Bay. The teams wrap up their weekend series today at 7:05 p.m.

Green Bay 0 0 1 1

Tri-City 0 2 24

First period-none. Penalties-Jaskowiak, Tri-City (interference), 9:40; Jaskowiak, Tri-City (cross checking), 12:31; Burt, Green Bay (interference), 17:46. P. Lamoureux, Tri-City (tripping), 19:33.

Second period-1, Tri-City, Hudson 18 (M. Lamoureux, Peltoma), 8:33; 2, Tri-City, Power 4 (Cichy, Hickey), 11:26. Penalties-Conway, Green Bay (delay of game), 4:15; Little, Green Bay (hooking), 15:44.

Third period-3, Tri-City, Mattila 10 (M. Lamoureux, Hudson), 2:20 (pp); 4, Tri-City, Cooper 6 (M. Lamoureux), 8:27 (pp); 5, Green Bay, McReynolds 6 (Hayes), 13:45. Penalties-Carew, Green Bay (tripping), 2:10; Carew, Green Bay (tripping), 3:15; Hagemeijer, Tri-City (holding), 6:38: Burt, Green Bay (hooking), 6:58; Little, Green Bay (holding), 7:24; Little, Green Bay (hooking), 16:34; P. Lamoureux, Tri-City (roughing), 16:47; Jaskowiak, Tri-City (holding), 18:53.

Shots-on-goal-Green Bay 6-7-11 24, Tri-City 7-13-12 32.

Power-play opportunities-Green Bay 0 for 6, Tri-City 2 for 8.

Goaltenders-Green Bay, Conway 6-13-3 (32 shots-28 saves). Tri-City, Hopper 8-7-0 (24-23).

Attendance-2,379.

Referee-Dan Dreger. Linesmen-Dana Penkivech, Michael Lacina.