Lancers Top Riders To Approach Anderson
March 29, 2008 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Omaha Lancers News Release
Travis Novak scored a pair of goals and Matt Thurber collected two assists for the Lancers in a 3-1 victory over the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders on Friday, March 28th at the Mid-America Center.
The come-from-behind victory put the Lancers within one win, or one Indiana regulation time loss, of clinching the Anderson Cup regular season USHL championship. The Anderson Cup title would also assure the Lancers of home-ice advantage in the entire Clark Cup post-season playoffs.
However, Cedar Rapids opened the scoring in the second period, when Doug Jones netted a power play goal at 7:01. The power play goal from Jones was his 11th man-advantage goal of the year and his 17th goal overall.
But, a span of 1:23 late in the second period and early in the third period turned the game around. Novak scored his 17th goal of the year and seventh power play goal of the season, assisted by Chris Connolly and Patrick Wiercioch with 15 seconds left in the second period.
Then, Aaron Lewadniuk took a pass from the right wall by Thurber and placed the puck in the net behind Cedar Rapids goaltender Kent Patterson for the eventual game-winning goal. Lewadniuk notched his 13th of the season at the 1:08 mark of the final frame for a 2-1 Lancer lead.
Novak completed the scoring with six seconds left in the game with an empty-net goal, assisted by Thurber for the final score of 3-1.
Each team scored once on the power play, with the Lancers 1-for-4 and Cedar Rapids 1-for-6.
Omaha out shot the RoughRiders for the game by a margin of 39-13, including 17 shots on goal in the first period, while holding Cedar Rapids to only two shots on net in the final period.
Lancer goaltender Drew Palmisano won his 30th game of the season (30-8-3) with a 12 save effort. The victory was also Palmisano's 50th career win in the USHL; his 49th with Omaha.
Patterson saw his record fall to 10-6-0 with a 36 save, two goal performance. It was his first won-loss decision in his second appearance of the season against the Lancers.
The same teams meet in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, March 29th with game-time at 7:05 PM. Bob Bakken provides the play-by-play coverage on News Talk 1420, KOTK Radio with pre-game coverage starting at 6:45 PM.
Having already claimed its sixth West Division title a number of weeks ago, the Lancers are now gunning for the franchise's fifth Anderson Cup title and first since the 2004-05 campaign, when the Lancers shared the Cup with Cedar Rapids.
The win was also the team's 40th victory of the season, equalling the 40 wins earned by the 1996-97 Omaha Lancers and is the fourth highest victory total for one season by a Lancer squad. The 2001-02 Lancers won 46 regular season games.
United States Hockey League Stories from March 29, 2008
- Did They Know the Playoffs Haven't Started? - Waterloo Black Hawks
- Omaha Slips Past Riders 3-2 - Cedar Rapids RoughRiders
- Bucs Fall to Tri-City 3-2 - Des Moines Buccaneers
- Junior Jackets outlast Steel - Ohio Junior Blue Jackets
- Lancers Top Riders To Approach Anderson - Omaha Lancers
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