Despite high expectations in the preseason, the perfect storm seemed to hit to make it be the toughest season since the franchise moved to Kearney.

A 24-34-2 record led to only the second non-playoff season for the Storm. It was also three fewer wins than the team had ever amassed in a season.

It's not something you expect from a Bliss Littler team. The coach has had success wherever he's coached in the junior hockey world. His 209 wins in the USHL are ninth all-time.

But he couldn't find an answer to overcome all the problems this year. That left the team trying to scrape out a win here or there over the final three months.

What went wrong?

The schedule didn't help. Playing 16 of the first 21 games on the road isn't easy for any team, especially when you're a team made up of 16-20 year olds.

But with nine wins in that stretch, the Storm was still in decent shape.

Then there was the goaltending problem.

Coaches sometimes talk about "the hockey gods." Well, Fiveholeus, the hockey god of goaltenders, must hate Tri-City.

Only once in eight years has the Storm not had to make an in-season move in the goalie department. That year Tri-City had Eric Aarnio and Peter Mannino and happened to claim the 2003-04 Anderson Cup.

Mannino's 26 wins in 38 games played and 2.11 goals against average remain eye-opening. It'd be amazing to think what he might have done without Aarnio there to split starts with.

Back to the present day: despite having Aaron Rock back in his second stint with the Storm and trading for Nick Hopper from Lincoln to make his return, the goaltending department didn't come close to making the 90 percent save average Littler demands.

Neither goalie got on a hot streak, and that played a part in the team never winning more than three in a row. Littler went to a "win and start again" philosophy down the stretch, and the revolving door between the two kept spinning.

The forwards and defenseman didn't seem to click, either. Sure, there were bright spots and some deserving fan favorites closed out strong USHL careers, but the team seemed to lack that elusive chemistry for some reason.

Second-half injuries decimated the forwards and left the team with three lines for the final month to add to the suffering.

It'll be an off-season to reflect for the Tri-City coaching staff and to assess what went wrong.

More than likely only a handful of familiar faces will don Storm sweaters again next year. Those that do will hope for much, much better things.

This and that

It's Tiger Woods' world, and we're all just living in it. I've accepted that.

The Tigerification continues with product after product being sponsored by him to help boost the sagging economy.

Woods is the rare controversy-free mega sports star, but I may have to break that. Anyone else suffer any side effects after drinking new Gatorade Tiger?

At first I had the urge to wear red on Sundays instead of this state's traditional Saturday. Not that big a deal.

Then I started doing a furious fist pump every time I successfully navigated the Second Street detour. Again, no biggie.

But now I want to marry a Swedish model/nanny. No problem to me, but my wife seems to disagree.

Thanks for getting me in trouble, Tiger. I'm rooting for Phil in Augusta.

Dale Miller is a sports writer for The Independent.