MOLINE, Ill. — The Quad City Storm’s season began on October 19, meaning that the season is officially five weeks old. With that said, it’s time to take a look back at the young season and see what’s changed from this time last year and rank how the team is doing so far.
Through five weeks this season, the Storm have played 12 games. They have a 4-5-3 standing, giving them 11 points and a .458 point percentage. Last season the team had played only 11 games their first five weeks, with a 4-6-1 record. That, of course, gave the Storm nine standings points and a .409 point percentage. The Storm went on to finish their inaugural season with an 18-33-5 record, 41 points, and a .366 point percentage. 
The northern-Illinois based team is on pace for a 51.3 point season if their point percentage doesn’t fluctuate. With those points, the Storm could have an 18-23-15 record at the end of the 2019-20 season based on their current record. That record is enough to make the playoffs as the eighth seed, but last year the lowest points to make playoffs was 58 points. Both the Fayetteville Marksmen and Pensacola Ice Flyers had 58 points, with the Macon Mayhem holding 59 points at the end of the season. Whether the Storm make the playoffs or finish with a record close to that projection, is a question only to be answered in April.
Moving along, no time like the present to talk about the present, and a bit of the past. The Storm struggled on their special teams the first roughly month of the season, taking 30 chances before finally converting on November 9th. Since then, they are now 6 for 47, which is good for 12.77%. Last season, through 11 games, the Storm had nine power play goals in 45 chances, a 20% conversion rate. By the end of the season, Quad City had a 19.19% conversion. 
On the other side of special teams, the Storm have this season allowed eight power play goals while being short-handed 37 times. Last year the team allowed nine power play goals in 60 chances. At the beginning of the season, head coach Dave Pszenyczny said he wanted his team to be the most disciplined in the league, and it seems to be the case now with the drastic drop in penalties served by his squad. 
Being only in week six of 25, it’s a little early to be saying “if the playoffs started today” or deciding whether or not a team will for sure make or miss a post-season run. The Storm are doing as well as they did last year at the same time. Many of the losses the Storm have suffered this season were close games, even if the score wouldn’t reflect such a fact. One of the losses in regulation was a one-goal game, and if not for the two short-handed goals the Storm allowed against the Birmingham Bulls on November 1st, the game would have required extra hockey to decide the victor. 
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