Lancers Drop Back-to-Back Games to Kick off the Preseason
September 9, 2022 – United States Hockey League (USHL) – Omaha Lancers News Release
SIOUX CITY, IA. – After falling in a close game against the Sioux Falls Stampede last night (9/8), the Lancers were looking to capture their first preseason win of the 2022-23 season over the Sioux City Musketeers.
Even though Sioux City has a new head coach and a lot of new faces on their roster, they were still bound to be a challenge for the Lancers as they still have a few key players that played a massive role in the Musketeers bringing home the 2022 Clark Cup.
The Lancers did not pick up the start to this one they wanted as they found themselves outshot 12-5 and down 3-0 on the scoreboard through 20 minutes.
The scoring kicked off four and a half minutes into the period as Colin Kessler got a feed from Kaden Shahan, split the Lancers’ defenseman and netted a swift shot by Lancers’ goaltender, Claudio Ardellini, who made his USHL preseason debut in this matchup.
Nine minutes later, William Hughes nets a great one-timer off a pass from Max Strand on the back-door to take the 2-0 lead with just over six minutes to go in the period.
To close it out, they capped off the first period scoring with a bouncing puck that was batted in by Sam Deckhut while on the man advantage to end the first period with the Lancers trailing 3-0.
The second period of play brought a goal for the Lancers’ offense, but they still trailed by three through 40 minutes.
Nick Pierre kicked off the second period scoring off a nice shot that went five-hole on Ardellini of a saucer pass from Tomek Haula to give Sioux City a 4-0 lead at the halfway point of the game.
The Lancers finally found the back of the net with 1:40 left to play in the second period as Kyle Contessa pickpocketed Musketeers’ goaltender, Axel Mangbo below the goal line, and found Braydon Beahm to bury a goal for Omaha and pull the Lancers within three goals, as they headed back to the locker room for the second intermission down 4-1.
Outside of Luke Amell taking down Grant Slukynsky in a fight with just over 10 minutes left in the final period, the third period was silent on all fronts. Sioux City took the 4-1 victory to improve to 1-0-0-0 on the preseason as the Lancers fall to 0-2-0-0.
The Lancers are back in action against the Des Moines Buccaneers tomorrow (9/10), for a 4:00PM CST puck drop at Tyson Event Center in Sioux City, Iowa. That game can be caught on Mixlr and FloSports.
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