LINCOLN, NE. – After knocking the Sioux Falls Stampede 3-2 on Saint Patrick's Day, the Lancers were set for their second matchup of the three-game weekend against the Lincoln Stars.
 
The Stars have given the Lancers a tough time this season as Omaha has only taken down Lincoln once, which was a 4-1 victory at Liberty First Credit Union Arena back on October 28^th, 2022. And with playoffs still attainable, a two point night against this highly ranked team would be extremely useful.
 
The first period did not go the Lancers' way as they found themselves down by a score of 3-0 with Lincoln goals coming from Klavs Veinbergs, German Yavash and Doug Grimes. The dominant play from the Stars also showed in the shot column as they had a 16-3 lead through the opening 20 minutes.
 
The Lancers managed to stop the bleeding for the duration of the second period as the frame concluded with the same 3-0 Lincoln lead. The Lancers were more competitive in the shot count with the second period total tallying a 10-8 lead for Lincoln bringing the grand total to 26-11 in favor of the Stars.

Matt Romer kicked off the third period scoring, pulling the Lancers within two goals as he caught a feed from Libor Nemec and went top-shelf over the blocker of Lucas Massie, which would be good for Romer's first of the season in his 15th game played. 

The Stars lit the lamp again nearly 13 minutes into the third period with Daniel Sambuco redirecting a pass from Adam Kleber to extend the Stars lead back up to three, making it a 4-1 game.

Seconds later, Adam Cardona and Sambuco dropped the gloves at center ice, resulting in Cardona demolishing his former teammate before heading to the locker room for the night. 

And in that moment, the powder keg got it's spark as a fight between German Yavash and Mateo Picozzi occurred just ten seconds later. The linesman spoiled the fun by getting between the two before things really got going, but each player was handed a five-minute major for fighting along with the 10-minute misconduct. And on top of that, each player was given a game-misconduct for abuse of officials for attempting to break away from the linesman, and were obviously ejected. 

Following the altercation, Picozzi was issued a gross misconduct penalty, along with Yavash picking up a "second misconduct." Handing each player 10 more penalty minutes on the night. 

After it seemed like order was restored, Tanner Rowe and Wyatt Olson went at it below the Lancers' goal line resulting in fighting majors and game misconducts for "fighting under five minutes" and both were sent to the showers early.

Along with the three fights in three minutes, Will Diamond and DJ Hart were both handed a two-minute minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.

By the end of the game, the third period alone owned 146 penalty minutes, leading to a grand total of 176 on the night.

The Stars tallied one more goal before the final buzzer with Jimmy Jurcev going five-hole on Kevin Pasche with under two minutes left to hand Lincoln the 5-1 victory.

The Lancers are back in action tomorrow (3/19) at home for a matchup with the Sioux City Musketeers. Puck is set to drop at 4:05PM CST. at Liberty First Credit Union Arena. That game can also be caught on FloSports and Mixlr.