OMAHA LANCERS (1-3-0-0) @ DES MOINES BUCCANEERS (4-0-0-0) Friday, Oct. 2, 7:05 p.m. CDT MidAmerican Energy Company RecPlex
The Lancers: Lost both games against the Buccaneers last Friday and Saturday… Have committed three cross-checking penalties so far this season, which is the most in the league… Are 17-16-1-2 all-time in October when facing the Bucs…Are 160-129-26-10 all-time in the month of October… Have scored 6 second-period goals so far this season, which is tied for the second most in the league… Lancers' next 3 opponents are a combined 8-2-0-0…
The Buccaneers: Have won each of their first four games to start a regular season for the first time since 2006-07, when they opened the campaign 7-0... Have defeated Omaha in 20 of their 23 meetings dating back to Jan. 21, 2022… They are one of the three remaining undefeated teams in the USHL… Is 77-42-5-4 all-time against Omaha when scoring at least one power-play goal… Have outscored Omaha 884-808 all-time in regular-season action…
Power-Play Struggles: The Lancers and Buccaneers both struggled to get anything going on the power play against one another last weekend… They were a combined 0-for-17 on the man advantage… Des Moines has scored just one power-play goal through their first 4 games of the season, the fewest in the Western Conference… The Buccaneers had the third-worst power play in the USHL last season (17.2%) while the Lancers had the second-worst (13.6%)...
Lancers To Watch: Yegor Kim was the only Lancer to record a point in each game against the Buccaneers last week, with a goal and a helper… Kim is currently the Lancers' leading scorer with 5 points (3+2) through 4 games this season… Tanner Morgan will be returning from suspension this week after receiving an instigator penalty Friday night in his fight with Des Moines forward Jakub Dubravik… Morgan will be seeking his first career goal against the Bucs… The third-year veteran has just one career point (0+1) in 8 career games against Des Moines…
Buccaneers To Watch: Forward Joey Argentina is the Bucs' leading scorer with 9 points (4+5) through 4 games this season… The Philadelphia native was a big part in sweeping Omaha last week, racking up 3 points (2+1) over the weekend… Riley Zupfer was also a thorn in the Lancers' side last weekend, as he amassed 2 goals and an assist, including the game-tying goal late Saturday night…
This Date In Lancers History: On Oct. 2, 2004, the Lancers defeated the Lincoln Stars, 7-1... On a night when the Lancers' new star-studded ownership group of Ben Robert, William Del Biaggio, Mike Eruzione, Mario Lemieux, Luc Robitaille and John Donovan met the fans to open the 2004-05 season at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, IA, the Lancers topped it all off by lambasting their arch-rival... Forward Brock Bradford led the way for the Lancers, scoring two goals and adding two assists... "You could just see everybody's faces light up," Bradford told the Omaha World-Herald. "It was a nice experience. How often do you get to meet guys like Lemieux, Robitaille, and Eruzione? It was nice to get a win for them." On the flip side, the Lincoln Stars lost their first game of the season after starting the season 3-0-0-0... "We made it easy for them," said then Lincoln head coach Steve Johnson. "They won every battle. It just shows where our thought process was. We weren't in it from the start."
