MADISON, WI. – The Omaha Lancers crossed into the eastern conference tonight (11/3) to take on the Madison Capitols who currently sit in third place in the eastern conference standings.
The Lancers are coming off of a well-played weekend against the Fargo Force, falling in overtime 4-3 and in regulation 4-2 to the top team in the league.
The first period brought strong play for the Lancers, as the shot totals through the first 10 minutes was 11-1 in favor of Omaha. However, the Lancers picked up two penalties in the later half of the opening frame, allowing Madison's offense to get some puck movement going in the attacking end.
Although they did not find the back of the net on the man-advantage, it did kill the Lancers' momentum for most of the second half of the period.
Shortly following a tripping call to Max Nagel, the Lancers scored off on odd-angle shot from Nick Pierre for his fifth goal of the season. The last-second effort allowed him to score with just eight tenths of a second left in the first. Sending the Lancers into the break with the 1-0 lead.
The tides turned drastically in the second period as Madison netted five unanswered goals to head into the third period with a demanding 5-1 lead.
The dominant period by the Capitols consisted of goals from Andrew Kuzma(PP), Sam Rice, Brendan Lamb, Christopher Delaney and James Hong(PP).
The Lancers kept the shots on goal close to even as Madison out-shot Omaha 14-12 on the period, with the Lancers still leading 28-21 in the total shot count.
The third period brought a lighter amount of action and only one goal as Delaney was able to net his second of the night at the 8:32 mark to push the lead to 6-1 in favor of the Capitols, which ended up being the final result.
Patriks Berzins turned aside 34 out of 35 total shots faced for a 0.971 save percentage. Mikhail Yegorov stopped 19 of 24 shots for a 0.792 percentage and Jack Olson acquired a 0.800 save percentage in stopping 4 of 5 shots in the second half of the second period.
The Lancers will be back in action tomorrow night for a 7:05PM CST. puck drop back in Madison for a rematch with the Capitols. That game can be caught on Mixlr and FloSports.
