OMAHA, NE. - The Omaha Lancers concluded their home games this season with the Des Moines Buccaneers at Liberty First Credit Union Arena Sunday evening. The Buccaneers were looking to pull ahead of the Sioux Falls Stampede in the standings to position themselves for the sixth and final playoff spot in the West. However, the Lancers would look to spoil that in their final home game of the 2022-23 campaign.

The opening frame had the Lancers come out swinging early on as they would create scoring chances, but to no avail.

Des Moines would ultimately get on the board first as defenseman Gustav Stjernberg would wrist one from the high slot to put it by a screened Kevin Pasche to make it 1-0 Des Moines heading into the second period of play.

The second period began with a strong performance coming from the desperate Buccaneers.

The scoring would start with forward Braden Rourke on the powerplay as he would wrist one from below the faceoff circle in which the puck would find its way through Pasche to give Des Moines the 2-0 lead.

Shortly thereafter it would be Rourke again on the powerplay as the Lancer defensemen would get caught cheating above the faceoff circle leaving a wide-open Rourke in front of the net allowing him bury a rebound on Pasche to stretch the Buccaneers' lead at 3-0 heading into the third period of play.

The third period would come and Des Moines would continue to control the game, as forward Braden Rourke would complete the hat-trick with his third goal of the night giving Des Moines a 4-0 advantage.

The Lancers would try and respond, but were unable to generate any offense, and to add insult to injury Des Moines forward Payton Nelson would score at the horn to end the Lancers home stand of the 2022-23 season in a 5-0 loss to the Bucs.

The Lancers are back in action Friday night in Sioux City to take on the Musketeers. Puck drop is at 7:05 CST. You can catch the game on Mixlr or FloSports.