KEARNEY, NE. – The Lancers headed to the Viaero Center in Kearney, Nebraska tonight (12/9) to kick off a three-game weekend with the Tri-City Storm, followed by two home games against the Fargo Force on December 10^th & 11^th.
 
The Lancers and Storm currently occupy the seventh and eighth place spots in the western conference. But with how tight the western conference is while nearing the halfway mark of the season, both teams are just a few wins away from possibly being as high as fourth place in the conference.
 
These two teams saw each other just six days ago at Liberty First Credit Union Arena, as Tri-City snagged a regulation win from the Lancers in a 3-2 fashion, causing Omaha to split the weekend after taking down Sioux City 4-2 the night prior.
 
Although being out-shot 12-8, the Lancers had a solid outing in the opening 20 minutes as they were able to head to the locker room with a 2-0 lead.
 
At the 8:49 mark of the period, William Smith launched a pass up to Braydon Beahm heading into the attacking zone. Beahm did a give-and-go with Tanner Rowe who found himself on a breakaway, and beat Storm netminder, Niklas Erickson five-hole to go ahead 1-0.
 
The second goal came just under four minutes later with Adam Cardona launching a shot from the blue line, tipping the shot off a Tri-City player and into the back of the net. That goal handed Cardona his first goal of the 2022-23 season as Vincent Salice cashed in on the assist to make it a 2-0 game through the first period.
 
The second period struggles continued for Omaha in the shot column and time of procession, but not on the scoreboard.
 
Even though Tri-City had the Lancers out-shot 14-8 in the second period, the Storm could not get a goal by Kevin Pasche as he stood tall for all 26 shots he saw through two frames.
 
The lone goal of the second period came on the power-play from Griffin Jurecki, for his sixth of the season, with Nate Benoit and Justin Stupka on the assists, making it a 3-0 game through two periods.
 
Erickson managed to stop nearly 90% of the shot, but the puck off the stick of Jurecki trickled through his legs. Erickson stopped just 13 of 16 shots faced on the night through the second period.
 
The third period brought trouble for the Lancers as Tri-City netted the three goals needed to force overtime.
 
1:49 into the third period, Daimon Gardner netted his second goal of the season, off a multi-shot play with Nick Roukonakis and Graham Gamache picking up assists on the play to make it a 3-1 game.
 
Roukonakis came through again with an assist four minutes later as Sebastian Tornqvist blasted home a one-timer over the short-side shoulder of Pasche to pull within one with still the majority of the final period to play.
 
After 13 minutes of scoreless hockey, Tri-City pulled Erickson for the extra-attacker and Dane Donwiak banged in a rebound off the right side post to net the game tying goal and force what would be a scoreless overtime period. Leading the two squads to shootout.
 
It took four rounds to decide this one as Griffin Jurecki, Drew Montgomery and Tanner Rowe couldn't score for Omaha, along with the same result coming in for Artemi Nizameyev, Dane Dowiak and Graham Gamache for the Storm.
 
To kick off the fourth round, brand-new Lancer, Reese Laubach beat Erickson top-shelf to net what would be the game-winner, as Cam O'Neill failed to beat Kevin Pasche in the final attempt to extend the shootout.
 
The Lancers captured the victory 4-3, as they have now collected four of the last six available points.
 
Kevin Pasche finished the night with 46 saves on 49 shots, good for a 0.939 save percentage, and remains perfect in shootouts this season.
 
The Lancers will be back at it at home for a 6:05PM CST puck drop with the Fargo Force on Saturday, December 10^th for Teddy Bear Toss Night. That game can be caught on FloSports and Mixlr.