KEARNEY, NE. – The Lancers returned to the Viaero Center for a rematch with the Tri-City Storm, looking to split the weekend series with a victory after falling in a hard-fought 2-1 battle the night prior (1/6).
 
Last night, it was a goaltender battle through and through as Michael Hrabal for Omaha stopped 31 of 33 shots faced, good for a 0.940 save percentage on the night. But Cameron Korpi on the other end managed to turn away 34 of 35 Lancers' shots on goal, capping off the victory and a 0.971 save percentage on the night, guiding his team to the 2-1 win.
 
Tonight, Oskar Siemionek got his first United States Hockey League start between the pipes. With his only in-game experience being back on November 5^th, playing the third period in a 7-2 loss to Des Moines at Buccaneer Arena. Leaving him with a 2.98 goals against average and a 0.852 save percentage.
 
It was another hot start for the Storm as they found the back of the net just 40 seconds into the matchup while up a man off a redirect by Kieran Cebrian, making it 1-0 early.
 
Following up the goal, Lancers' Head Coach David Wilkie replaced Siemionek with Michael Hrabal.
 
Moments later, the Lancers found themselves on a two-man advantage for a full two minutes. With that, they pulled Hrabal to make it a 6-on-3 power-play. But after not being able to capitalize while up three men, Siemionek was put back in net due to putting the goalie back in on the fly, where he stayed until the next stoppage of play.
 
After Hrabal was put back in net, he stayed there until part of the way through the third period.
 
The Storm struck a second time at the 7:48 mark of the period off a shot from Cale Ashcroft, and again with just 58 seconds left with a close-range shot from Brock James, making it a 3-0 lead for Tri-City at the first break.
 
The Lancers managed to slow Tri-City' momentum in the second period, but the Storm still added to their lead.
 
A shot through traffic from Trevor Connelly off a pass from Dane Dowiak made it a 4-0 game, and handed the Storm their second power-play goal of the night.
 
The Storm struck again on the man-advantage early in the third with a bashed-in rebound goal from Samo Meritahti, increasing the lead to five with just under 17 to play, and moved the Storm to three power-play goals on the night.
 
The final goal for Tri-City came 6:29 into the third period where August Falloon netted a beautiful bar-down one-timer off a feed from Daimon Gardner, making it a 6-0 game.

At this point, Hrabal was pulled and Siemionek was put back in to close out the final 13:31 of the game. And with Tri-City beginning to play conservative hockey at this point, Siemionek finished the game with only four shots faced, with three saves on the night.
 
The lone goal for Omaha did not come until the 19:21 mark of the third period as Aleksi Kivioja redirected a shot from Will Smith, off a pass from Justin Stupka to break up the shutout for Tri-City netminder, Cameron Korpi. That goal ended the game in a 6-1 victory for the Storm.
 
The Lancers now fall to 10-15-3-2, as Tri-City improves to 14-11-0-2 on the year.
 
Penalties played a big part in Tri-City taking home the dominant win with three power-play goals on ten opportunities. One of which, being a five-minute major.
 
The Lancers capped off the game with 60 total penalty minutes, coming in the form of 20 minutes of minor penalties, two five-minute majors, and three 10-minute misconducts.
 
The Lancers will be back in action on Friday, January 13^th at 7:05PM CST, as they will host the Sioux City Musketeers at Liberty First Credit Union Arena back in Omaha. That game can be caught on FloSports and Mixlr.