The slump, if there ever was one, for the Quad-City Mallards line of Hugo Proulx, Kevin Kerr and Patrick Nadeau, must be over.

Those three contributed 21 points combined in the Mallards' record-breaking 13-5 rout of the Missouri River Otters Sunday at The Mark of the Quad-Cities.

Nadeau scored a hat trick and added two assists and Proulx and Kerr each had a pair of goals and six assists to tie Glenn Stewart's single-game franchise scoring record of eight points.

"A couple weeks ago we kind of went through a slump when we weren't scoring a lot but other guys picked us up," Proulx said. "Everything we threw at the net today seemed to go in.

"Our line is having some fun again. There was no rhythm in the game last night. We wanted to jump on them early today."

Mallards coach Matt Shaw isn't sure there ever was "a slump."

"They had just set such a high standard early in the season. I'm not sure they had a slump, they just weren't matching their own high standards," Shaw said.

It was quite a rally after the River Otters, who beat the Mallards in a shootout on Saturday night, got the opening goal of the game with a two-man advantage.

The next time the River Otters scored, they were down 10-1.

Proulx, Ryan Lindsay, Kerr, Rick Emmett, Kelly Hultgren, Kerr again, Stewart, Anton Pavlychev, Nadeau and Nadeau again scored in between Missouri's first and second goals.

"Some games you get 10 great shots and no goals. Some nights everything you throw at them goes in," Shaw said.

The Mallards didn't stop at 10 goals. Missouri would not let the Mallards stop.

The River Otters were helpless against what appeared to be a much fresher Mallards team even though both teams were playing their third game in three nights.

"We're missing a lot of key guys right now," River Otters assistant coach Scott Bell, a former Mallards defenseman, said. "We're not the same when we don't have players like Lonnie Loach (injured), Jeremiah McCarthy (in the AHL for the rest of the season), Marty Standish (in the IHL) and Allan Roulette (injured)."

Missing players may have been a factor, but the game followed a season trend. The Mallards have either feasted or starved offensively against the River Otters this season. The three highest scoring nights Missouri has allowed this season have come at the hands of the Mallards.

Missouri goaltender Brian Regan owns two shutouts against the Mallards this season, but the Mallards have also roughed him up in other games. On Sunday Regan kept only four of the first nine Mallards shots out of the net.

Regan was gone after Hultgren scored his fourth goal of the season on a shot that usually would have been a routine save for Regan.

Regan, who entered the weekend with an outstanding 1.93 goals against average and didn't give up a goal in his UHL All-Star appearance, was roughed up for 11 goals combined by the Mallards on Saturday and in his brief Sunday appearance.

Chris Bernard took over for Regan. Only 48 seconds after he took his place in the dunk tank … ah, the goal crease … the Mallards scored their sixth goal of the game.

Missouri player Forrest Gore virtually begged the Mallards' Garry Gulash to fight him. Gulash pummeled Gore, who picked up the extra minor for instigating.

Seven seconds into that power play Kerr scored his first goal of the game.

Nadeau had completed his hat trick, scoring his 23rd goal of the season, on assists from (who else?) Proulx and Kerr with 3:03 gone in the third period to make the score 11-3.

Proulx then scored No. 12 on another assist for Kerr.

After the Mallards got their 12th goal, fans in the crowd of 8,555 indicated that they know their record book as well as they know the wives, girlfriends, parents, dogs, favorite Back Street Boy and gum of all Mallards players.

There was chanting of "one more goal, one more goal," to break the single-game Mallards record.

As hard as the Mallards tried not to score again, Bernard couldn't stop Mark McFarlane's long shot with 2:45 remaining. The goal broke the old Mallards mark of 12 goals on two occasions.

Kerr couldn't remember a similar scoring night in his long career.

"I don't think I've ever had eight points in a game. Or it may have just been so long ago that I've forgotten," Kerr joked.

Nadeau scored a hat trick and five points and wasn't even the "first star" of the game. In order, it was the two record breakers, Proulx and Kerr, then Nadeau.

The victory by the Mallards gives them a 3-2-1 mark against their United Sports Ventures sister organization and improved their season mark to 32-9-4.