BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Bloomington PrairieThunder play their home games at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum, but the team moved into a pretty nice new residence Wednesday night.

The Thunder stands alone atop the International Hockey league standings, two points ahead of idle league powers Port Huron and Fort Wayne after a 6-3 win over the Quad-City Mallards. It's the latest the fourth-year franchise has held sole position of first place and comes ahead of a weekend trip for two with the Icehawks and one in Muskegon.

The Thunder had goals from six players and 28 saves from Paulo Colaiacovo. For the Mallards, the inability to protect the puck proved costly.

"It's only our fourth game, but we turned the puck over a few times and they just scored," Quad-Cities coach Frank Anzalone said. "We made some youthful mistakes, and we paid for it. We tried to climb back in all game and that's hard to do, especially against a fairly experienced team."

The third period opened with a fight between Craig Macdonald and Brandon Marino, followed a short time later by Mallards goalie Sebastien Laplante stopping Bill Bagron on a penalty shot. After Matt McIlvane converted a nifty drop pass from Brett Holmberg, the Thunder held a 4-1 lead.

A Patrick Levesque tally less than 30 seconds later trimmed the lead, but Jon Booras rifled home a one-timer on a cross-ice pass from Jesse Dudas on a power play with just under 13 minutes to play.

Anzalone emptied the net with 5½ minutes left, which worked well when Obi Aduba flicked the puck past Colaiacovo seconds later. But the strategy didn't hold up long enough, as Bagron snared an errant pass in front of the blue line and found the vacant cage to seal the win for Bloomington.

"It was a show if interest in the game and a show of faith," Anzalone said of pulling the goalie early. "But we turned the puck over.

"We worked hard and never stopped working. We just have to keep going forward."

The Thunder dictated the pace through most of the first period, building a 10-1 shot advantage and holding Quad-Cities without a chance on its first power play. But the Mallards found the twine first when Terry Harrison's wrister from the top of the circle beat Colaiacovo low to the stick side at the 14:04 mark.

Bloomington answered quickly. Jamie Carroll got behind the Mallards defense along the bench-side boards and was joined by Robin Gomez for a 2-on-1 rush. Carroll opted against passing and fired the puck past Sebastien Laplante. Less than 2 minutes later with Quad-Cities shorthanded, Russ Smith connected on a blast from the point to give the Thunder a 2-1 lead.

"We knew they would come out strong and I felt that we matched their intensity and controlled most of the play," Skalde said. "Overall, I thought we were the aggressor offensively, finishing checks and that was the game plan.

"Our forwards kept working it all night long, our defense moved it up and we got a couple timely goals."

Moments after a short, post-whistle tussle between Ryan Finnerty and Harrison led to dual unsportsmanlike penalties, Jesse Dudas widened Bloomington's lead when he found the back of the net with a drive from the circle. Colaiacovo maintained that lead through the second period, turning aside numerous point blank chances and sprawling to deny a breakaway opportunity.

"I thought as a team we played really well. We feel like all work like a team against any team in this league we'll win or, if not, play well," said Carroll, who also had two assists. "We were smart, we scored when we had chances and we stepped up for teammates when we had to.

"Paulo stood up for us tonight and played well when we needed him to and we were able to win for him."