CHICAGO, IL. – The Omaha Lancers headed into the eastern conference for game one of the weekend series tonight with the Chicago Steel. The Lancers have only seen the Steel once since the end of the COVID year and fell in the matchup in a hard-fought 3-2 loss in February of 2023.
Chicago started out hot with a goal nine minutes in as Chris Reiniger sent a shot from 60 feet through traffic and beat Lancers' netminder, Mikhail Yegorov glove side to score the lone goal of the opening period.
The Lancers were given a five-minute power-play with 4:23 remaining the period, but were unable to beat Chicago netminder, Quentin Sigurdson before the buzzer. Making it a 1-0 Steel lead through 20 minutes.
The second period was a slow start for the Lancers, but they had a phenomenal finish as they got to the second break with a 3-1 lead.
Nick Sykora would tally his first United States Hockey League goal with a fast-break started by Lucas Brennan and Rylan Brady, as Sykora sent a wrister blocker-side on Sigurdson to tie the game at one.
Will Elger was able to sneak behind the defense for a short-side goal off a stretch pass from Drew DellaSalla to take the first lead of the night for Omaha just over two minutes later.
That was quickly followed by Aleksi Kivioja redirecting a shot from Noah Jones on the power-play for Kivioja's first goal since his return from two months on the injured reserve. Sending the contest into the second intermission with the Lancers leading by a pair.
That power-play goal would make the Lancers 1/2 on the night on the man-advantage. Which ended up being the final result of the contest as that was the final Chicago penalty of the night.
Yegorov would see eight second period shots for a total of 16 on the evening, and turned aside 15 of them through 40 minutes.
Omaha would take that second period momentum into the final frame as the third period started with a goal from Christian Kocsis just 2:19 in to take a 4-1 lead.
Just five minutes later, Chicago would tack on their second goal of the game.
Chicago scored a power-play goal from Michael Hage to pull the Steel back within two, bringing Chicago to a 25 percent man-advantage on the night. Mick Thompson found Hage near the high slot where he went nearly bar-down to pull his team back within a pair.
The Lancers responded less than a minute later with an unassisted goal on an odd-man rush for David Deputy to make it a three goal lead once again with just over 11 minutes remaining. Deputy was aggressive in the attacking zone, forcing a turnover in the Steel defensive end. Pierre was ready on the back door for a one-timer, but Deputy opted to shoot and buried his own rebound. Scoring on Sigurdson for his 13th goal of the season.
That would then be followed by Kocsis' second goal of the night, eighth of the year to cap off a 6-2 win over the Steel on a weird knuckleball style shot that beat the goaltender glove side.
The elite line for Omaha tonight was the line consisting of Christian Kocsis, Drew DellaSalla and Will Elger. With all three players collecting three points on the night.
Kocsis: 2G-1A-3P
Elger: 1G-2A-3P
DellaSalla: 0G-3A-3P
Yegorov turned aside 22 of 24 shots faced for a solid 0.917 save percentage on the night as Sigurdson stopped 21 of 27 for a 0.778 save percentage.
The Lancers will look for the sweep of the Steel tomorrow (3/3), as they have a rematch with Chicago at 3:05PM CST. That game can be streamed on Mixlr and FloSports.
