Poolman's Hat-Trick Lifts Lancers to Improbable 6-5 Win
October 27, 2013 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Omaha Lancers News Release
RALSTON, NE - In the final tilt of their second-consecutive three-game weekend, the Omaha Lancers proved persistent in an unlikely 6-5 comeback win over the stunned Muskegon Lumberjacks on Sunday at Ralston Arena. With the win, the Lancers improved to 9-1-1 overall this season and with 19 points, remain alone atop the USHL's Western Conference standings and sit tied with Team USA for first-place overall in the USHL.
Looking to deliver Omaha their first home loss of the season, the Lumberjacks started quickly on Sunday, burying a pair of first period goals, both from Scott Pooley, to grab a 2-0 lead heading into the second period. In the middle frame, Omaha chipped away at the Lumberjack lead and eventually leveled the score at 2-2 thanks to a Gage Hough goal, assisted by Tyler Vesel and Jake Randolph, at 10:17 and Omaha captain Tucker Poolman's first goal of the season, a power-play tally at 14:41 that came on feeds from Randolph and Hough.
Perhaps content with merely tying the game, the Lancers promptly surrendered two more Muskegon goals, from Frederik Tiffels at 15:29 and C.J. Smith at 18:03 on the power-play, to again enter an intermission down by a pair, this time facing a 4-2 deficit on the scoreboard.
In a repeat performance from the prior period, a Lancer response was lightning-quick in coming, as Poolman's second of the game drew Omaha within a goal on feeds from Hough and Randolph just 38 seconds into the third and Anthony Angello's second score of the season, coming less than two minutes later, once again lifted the Lancers to a 4-4 tie. In a cyclical game, the wheel of fate once again spun downward for the Lancers at 8:17 of the third however, when Lumberjacks sniper Matt Iacoppeli extended his league-wide season-long goal scoring streak to seven games with his eighth goal of the season to manufacture another Muskegon edge, this time at 5-4.
With time running out in the third and his team down by a goal, Poolman, a future North Dakota blueliner and 2013 NHL Draft selection of the Winnipeg Jets (5th Round, 127th overall), once again took it upon himself to hoist the Lancers out of the trench and at 12:59, he squeezed a center point wrister, through sheer force of will, past Lumberjacks goaltender Eric Shierhorn for his third goal of the game and of the season, a hat-trick tally set up by Steven Johnson and Austin Pooley that tied the game for the third time.
While both the Lumberjacks and Lancers tightened the screws down the stretch and seemed bound for overtime, at long last, a lucky bounce caromed Omaha's way at 15:43 when St. Cloud State-bound defenseman Jimmy Schuldt found the puck on his stick at the center blue thanks to Angello and Louie Rowe and the Minnetonka, Minnesota native weaved a seeing-eye offering through a maze of traffic in front of Schierhorn and beat the Muskegon keeper for the game-winning goal, his second score of the season.
Sunday's win delivered the Lancers their fifth consecutive victory at Ralston Arena to open the 2013-14 campaign and capped off a season-opening month in which Omaha earned at least one point in ten of eleven games played. Next up for the Lancers, it's a Friday tilt with the Sioux City Musketeers at Ralston Arena on Friday. Full coverage of Friday's game begins at 6:50 pm with the "Valpak Pregame Show" on the Lancers' flagship station, "The Mighty" 1290 KOIL with Lancers broadcaster Tony Brown providing the play-by-play.
In 2013-14, the five-time Anderson Cup and seven-time Clark Cup Champion Omaha Lancers drop the puck on their 28th season in the USHL. Season ticket packages for the Lancers' second campaign at the state-of-the-art Ralston Arena are available now starting at just $12.50 per game! To reserve your seats, contact the Lancers' ticket office today at 402-344-7825, extension 1, or log on to www.lancers.com for more information. Be sure to follow the Lancers on Twitter @OmahaLancers and don't forget to 'Like' the official "Omaha Lancers" fan page on Facebook.
United States Hockey League Stories from October 27, 2013
- Former Stampede Star Thomas Vanek Traded to New York Islanders - Sioux Falls Stampede
- Wild Offensive Shootout Slips Away from Muskegon Late in Omaha - Muskegon Lumberjacks
- Poolman's Hat-Trick Lifts Lancers to Improbable 6-5 Win - Omaha Lancers
- 'Snakebit' Phantoms Drop 4-2 Contest to Team USA - Youngstown Phantoms
- Off to Never Never Land for Bucs as Ice Pillage Des Moines, 6-1 - Indiana Ice
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