PEORIA -– After missing on several golden opportunities to tie the game in the third period, a seemingly harmless shot from the left point did the trick for the Quad City Flames.

Then, after surviving two overtime penalties, the Flames outscored the Peoria Rivermen 2-0 in the shootout to win 3-2 at the Peoria Civic Center on Friday, their first win over the Rivermen in three regular-season meetings this season.

“At least no one can say we can’t beat Peoria any longer,’’ QC coach Ryan McGill said. “I was really impressed with the way we played the third period. We had a lot of energy and we created a lot of chances. You don’t expect one to finally go in, you have to keep working; and that’s what we did.’’

Down 2-1 with just over two minutes left, QC got its eighth power play of the game. Then, with goalie Matt Keetley off for a sixth attacker, Krys Kolanos found the puck on his stick with the final seconds winding down off the clock.

He let loose a shot that hit a Peoria player in front of the net and re-directed into the open side of the goal to tie it with 12.8 seconds left in regulation.

“My man was fronting me pretty good, so I had to shoot it to the other side,’’ Kolanos said. “Thankfully, it found it’s way in. Carsen (Germyn) won a big faceoff to Tim Hambly and he got the puck over to me to set it up.

“We probably should have gotten it done a lot earlier, but we’ll take it. This is a great way to start the (five-game) road trip.’’

In the overtime, QC was whistled for two penalties, giving Peoria a short two-man advantage, but a Peoria double-minor ended that great chance and the Flames survived to the shootout. In that session, Kolanos and Adam Cracknell scored highlight-reel goals and Keetley stopped the first four shooters he faced to wrap up the victory.

“This is something we need to build from,’’ McGill said.

Despite outshooting the Rivermen 12-7 in the first, QC found itself behind 1-0 when a rebound flip on net by Peoria’s Nikolay Lemtyugov hit QC defenseman Matt Pelech in front and rebounded through Keetley's pads.

“I really never saw it,’’ Keetley said. “I knew it hit ‘Peli’ in the knee, but I thought it must have gone in over me. He’s the one who told me it slid in low. He was upset about that, but everyone picked it up from there.’’

The Rivermen survived two lengthy QC 5-on-3 advantages and then made it 2-0 on a power play of their own when Charles Linglet got behind the Flames’ defense and beat Keetley one-on-one.

The Flames finally found some luck on their third lengthy 5-on-3 of the game late in the second. Grant Stevenson walked from the goal line and flipped a backhander over Chris Beckford-Tseu for his ninth to cut the lead in half.

“That was a big goal,’’ Stevenson said. “We knew coming in that the power play was going to be important for us. We missed two great chances earlier on the 5-on-3, but got that one to get us back in the game.

“We knew after the second period that we had to carry the momentum into the third and that’s what we did.’’

QC outshot Peoria 18-5 in the final period, but it was the last one that mattered most.

“They don’t have to be pretty,’’ Kolanos said. “They just have to go in. That was a good one for us.’’