BLOOMINGTON - The improvements Bloomington PrairieThunder coach Derek Booth had sought were evident Thursday. The progress, however, stopped a bit too early.

"We played 55 minutes," Booth said. "It was 55 minutes of hockey."

Quad City scored twice in the final 5:29 to surge past Bloomington for a 3-2 United Hockey League victory before a U.S. Cellular Coliseum crowd of 3,123.

"I hope this one really hurts," said Booth after his team slipped to 1-4-0. "I hope the guys are so mad in there that they played 55 minutes and gave the game away at the end."

Chad Woollard scored at the 14:31 mark to boost the Mallards (1-3-0) into a 2-2 tie, and Glenn Detulleo's goal at 16:47 was the difference.

"This is a lot bigger for us, especially since the first three games we got destroyed in goal," Quad City coach Brian Curran said. "We needed a little confidence boost. The only way I know to get out of these slumps is to work harder and press and press."

Goalie Steffan Braunlich was stout in his Bloomington debut, turning away 24 of 25 Quad City shots over the first two periods.

"The guys played well. We had a couple of mental lapses and we lost the game," Braunlich said. "Everybody is frustrated. Everybody feels like we played well and didn't come out with the result we wanted."

Jason Lawmaster put the Thunder ahead 1-0 at the 15:20 mark of the first period. Lawmaster's second goal of the season was assisted by B.J. Gaustad and Tyler Rennette.

Brock Becker poked the puck away from a Quad City player in the second period and beat Mallards' goalie Jason Tapp far side, top corner for an unassisted goal at the 1:46 mark of the second period.

"It was one of those lucky bounces where you find yourself coming in all alone," said Becker. "It's a matter of bearing down, making sure you get it past the goalie and I found a way to do that.

"I was leaning into the check and the goalie assumed I couldn't get much good wood on it. I fired the puck high and I surprised him."

Quad City did not solve Braunlich until a Ray Smegal goal at 4:15 of the second period. Assists went to Drew Otten and Patrick Nadeau as the Thunder could not clear a long rebound.

Woollard powered a shot to the left of Braunlich with the help of a Detulleo assist for the tie.

Jami Yoder and Woollard assisted on Detulleo's game winner.

"He was very confident," Booth said of Braunlich. "Unfortunately, he was five minutes away from his first pro win. We wanted to get him that, but we just didn't finish."

"I'm at a loss for words," said Becker. "It was not for a lack of effort. I think the guys played their hearts out. It was a couple of mental errors we're going to clean up in practice."

Bloomington was outshot, 37-25, and came up empty on nine power play opportunities.

"We forced them to make some mistakes and it cost them at the end," said Curran. "All around, it was a pretty good game by both teams. We got the breaks. That was nice to see because we've been getting killed lately."

Baker sidelined

Bloomington player/assistant coach Trevor Baker watched Thursday's game in street clothes.

He will miss four weeks with a hernia.