Fighting Five: Saints Open Home Schedule against Omaha
Published on October 3, 2025 under United States Hockey League (USHL)
Dubuque Fighting Saints News Release
Dubuque, IA - The Dubuque Fighting Saints (3-0-0-0, 6 pts) host the Omaha Lancers (1-3-0-0, 2 pts) in their home opener on Friday night at ImOn Arena.
Here are five things to know ahead of the matchup:
1. Dubuque Detail
The Fighting Saints play their first home games of the regular season this weekend, where they have a .661 winning percentage and .712 points percentage over the last two seasons.
Last season, the Fighting Saints won 21 of their 30 home games and have won 39 of 59 games at ImOn Arena over the past two seasons.
2. Scoring Shorties
Charlie Arend scored his first-career shorthanded goal in Madison and the Saints have two-straight games with a shorthanded goal. Melvin Ekman scored a shorthanded goal against Waterloo on Sept. 18, the Saints' of the season.
Ekman's goal ended a stretch of 40 games for the Fighting Saints without a shorthanded tally. Before Ekman's goal against the Hawks, the last shorthanded goal for Dubuque came from Colin Frank on Dec. 6, 2024 against Waterloo.
3. Dominant Defenseman
Ludvig Lafton played his first game for Dubuque in the regular season last week, earning a power-play assist and helping the Saints to a 3-2 win over the Capitols.
Lafton missed the first two games for Dubuque because he was attending Training Camp with the NHL's Utah Mammoth. In his first game, Lafton skated on the top defense pair with Teo Besnier and led the team in ice time.
4. Saints Spread
Dubuque scored in all three phases in the win over Madison, logging a power-play goal, shorthanded goal and an even-strength goal.
So far this season, Dubuque is the only USHL team with multiple power-play goals and shorthanded goals. The Saints have four power-play goals from three different scorers on the man advantage (Merrill - 2, Josefsson-Westling, Barron) and have two different shorthanded scorers (Arend, Ekman).
5. Lancer Listings
The Lancers have been outscored 23-9 in four games, winning their first game at the Fall Classic and dropping three-straight since.
Since the 5-4 win over Green Bay in the opener, the Lancers have been outscored 19-4 in three games. Former Fighting Saints affiliate player Ryan Aaronson leads the Lancers with a pair of goals so far.
Friday's game begins at 7:05 p.m. CDT at ImOn Arena and tickets are available here. The game can also be found on Eagle 102.3 and FloHockey.
United States Hockey League Stories from October 3, 2025
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