OMAHA, NE. - The Omaha Lancers concluded their home-and-home weekend with the Lincoln Stars at Liberty First Credit Union Arena Saturday night. The Lancers would look to give their offense a jump start coming into this game, as Omaha had only mustered up two goals in the last three games coming into the contest. The Lancers would also look to stop a rather unfamiliar and disturbing trend against the Stars as the Lancers had lost 8 of their last 9 meetings with the Stars dating back to March of 2022.
The first period began with Lincoln opening the scoring on a shorthanded goal as forward Dashel Oliver puts it home after a Libor Nemec turnover to make it 1-0 Stars.
The Lancers would respond however, as defenseman Adam Cardona jumps up into the rush as forward Griffin Jurecki made a beautiful feed to Cardona in which he would backhand it past Lincoln netminder Cameron Whitehead to tie it up at one goal apiece going into the second period.
The second period would be dominated by the Lancers, as a handy capped Omaha club were only able to suit up 17 skaters tonight took Lincoln to the wood shed throughout the middle frame.
The scoring would start with forward Libor Nemec who made up for the turnover in the first period as he would crash to the net and cash in on the rebound after the initial shot came from Justin Stupka to make it 2-1 Lancers.
Omaha was not done as shortly thereafter forward Reese Laubach would deflect one past Whitehead to stretch Omaha's lead at 3-1.
The Lancers would continue to pressure Lincoln as the Stars would hang on for dear life just trailing by two goals going into the locker room.
An angry Lincoln coach Rocky Russo storms off the ice giving the officials an earful; knowing his team is backed in a corner heading into the second intermission. The Lancers would finish with 34 shot attempts in the second period alone to just 10 shot attempts for Lincoln.
The third period had the Stars come out responding, but not without a little help from the officials, as early in the period defenseman Riley Rosenthal would make a clean open ice hit, however it was not seen that way by the ref, as he would access him a head contact penalty, one that the same ref from a night ago gave the same penalty to Drew Montgomery who would be suspended from this very contest for that very same penalty. Lincoln would show their familiar felonious side after the clean hit as the rivalry would turn up a notch.
The Stars would score on the ensuing powerplay as forward Doug Grimes would cash in back door to cut the deficit to within one.
Once again, referee Ryan Siegel would go to his "go to call"- another head contact penalty with Reese Laubach being the guilty party after Lincoln forward Mason Marcellus clearly flopped, as referee Siegel bought it and gave it to him.
Lincoln would begin to control the game as later on forward Tanner Ludtke would cash in off his own rebound to tie it up at three apiece.
Overtime would commence with neither team finding the back of the net, but the shootout would provide a result with Antonio Fernandez getting the lone tally to give Lincoln the 4-3 shootout win. The Lancers are back in action Friday night at Liberty First Credit Union Arena to take on the Sioux Falls Stampede. Puck drop is at 7:05pm CST. You can catch the game on Mixlr or FloSports
