KEARNEY, NE. – The Lancers enter game two of a three-game road trip at the Viaero Center in Kearney, Nebraska for a western conference matchup with the Tri-City Storm.
 
The two teams currently sit at the bottom of the western conference standings, but with two points tonight, and with the necessary help around the league, the Lancers could be as high as fifth place. And for the Storm, fourth place at the end of the night with the western conference being so tight in early 2023.
 
The Lancers are coming off a massive comeback victory in Sioux City just six days ago (12/31/22), taking down the Musketeers by a score of 7-5 after trailing 3-0 under two minutes into the first period.
 
As for Tri-City, they are coming into this game off a hefty win themselves, slamming the second place Lincoln Stars 6-1 last Saturday (12/31/22).
 
The fast-paced opening period in this one racked up 29 shots between the two squads as the Lancers led 16-13 through the opening 20 minutes. But the Lancers found themselves down by a score of 1-0 as Nick Roukounakis netted a one-timer off a feed from Graham Gamache from behind the net at the 4:13 mark, giving the Storm the lead they would carry into the first intermission.
 
The Lancers came out of the gate slow in the second period, being outshot 9-2 through the opening half of the middle frame. But, after getting back on the man advantage, Aleksi Kivioja and Matt Romer created a scoring opportunity for Nate Benoit in which he capitalized on. Blasting a slap shot that tipped off the leg of Storm defenseman, Samo Meritahti, locking the game up at one goal apiece just over halfway through the period.
 
After a lot of back-and-forth play for seven minutes, Tri-City regained the lead with just 90 seconds left in the period with a goal from Ryan Smith off a pass from Brock James, giving the Storm a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes.
 
Shots on goal were an even 24-24 through two frames.
 
The third period brought more offensive pressure from both squads, but no goals were accumulated. The Lancers had about two minutes of solid 6-on-5 hockey with Hrabal pulled, but couldn't net another past Korpi. Leading him to a win with a 0.971 save percentage. As his team took the 2-1 victory.
 
Even with the loss, Hrabal had a very impressive game with allowing two goals on 33 shots, leading him to a 0.940 save percentage on the night.
 
The Lancers will be back in Kearney for a rematch with the Storm tomorrow (1/7) at 7:05PM CST. That game can be caught on FloSports and Mixlr. ­