USHL Lincoln Stars

Stars Weekly

Published on February 6, 2018 under United States Hockey League (USHL)
Lincoln Stars News Release


The Stars Weekly is a new weekly recap and preview of Stars news, games, and more. The Stars Weekly will be released every Monday during the 2017-18 season.

LAST WEEK...

Tuesday, January 30: Sioux City Musketeers 1, Stars 7

Shots: Musketeers 18, Stars 39

PP: Musketeers 0-for-6, Stars 3-for-7

The Lincoln Stars (15-18-0-1) powered through the Sioux City Musketeers (15-14-4-2) with a 7-1 win on Tuesday night at the Ice Box.

Musketeers forward Cole Koepke (0:30 1st) scored the first and lone goal of the night to take a 1-0 lead before the Stars answered back. Stars forwards Casey Dornbach (PP, 10:26 1st), Austen Long (PP, 16:10 1st) and Zach Dubinsky (17:02 1st) tallied three-unanswered goals including the first for Dubinsky to take a 3-1 lead. Stars forward Dominick Mersch (SH, 5:37 3rd), defenseman Carter Long (13:55 3rd), and forwards Ashton Calder (PP, 16:04 3rd) and Tristan Ashbrook (18:59 3rd) added four more goals in the third period for the 7-1 win.

Stars goaltender Tomáš Vomá?ka (9-14-0) saved 17 of 18 shots in the win. Musketeers netminder Matt Jurusik (14-11-4) stopped 14 of 17 shots in the loss, and Ben Kraws halted 18 of 22 shots in relief.

Friday, February 2: Stars 5, Team USA 3

Shots: Stars 37, Team USA 34

PP: Stars 1-for-3, Stars 1-for-3

Early goals helped push the Lincoln Stars (16-18-0-1) to a 5-3 win over Team USA (22-10-0-1) on Friday night at USA Hockey Arena.

Stars forward Dominick Mersch (3:15 1st) started the scoring early and was followed by forward Philippe Lapointe (15:11 1st) to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Team USA forward Alex Turcotte (SH, 15:57 1st) answered back before Stars forward Devlin McCabe (PP, 18:02 1st) stretched the lead back to two, 3-1. Stars forwards Tristan Ashbrook (2:06 2nd) and Mersch (10:23 2nd) tallied two more goals, bringing the lead to 5-1. Team USA defenseman Henry Thrun (9:50 3rd) and Turcotte (PP, 19:05 3rd) chipped away late, but the Stars won 5-3.

Stars netminder Tomáš Vomá?ka (10-14-1) stopped 31 of 34 shots in the win. Team USA goaltender Spencer Knight (7-3-0) halted 16 of 21 shots in the loss, and Cameron Rowe turned away all 16 shots in relief.

Saturday, February 3: Stars 4, Team USA 3

Shots: Stars 25, Team USA 37

PP: Stars 0-for-3, Stars 0-for-5

The Lincoln Stars (17-18-0-1) came from behind to take a 4-3 win over Team USA (23-10-0-1) on Saturday night at USA Hockey Arena.

Both teams went back and forth starting with Team USA forward Matthew Boldy (13:33 1st) opening the scoring followed by Stars forward Devlin McCabe (16:05 1st) to tie the game at 1-1. Team USA forward Danny Weight (0:29 2nd) came back to take the one-goal lead before Stars forward Josiah Slavin (9:53 2nd) answered again to level the score, 2-2. Weight (9:21 3rd) added a second to take a 3-2 lead, but Stars forwards Collin Peters (14:56 3rd) and Zach Dubinsky (15:08 3rd) pushed the road side ahead for the 4-3 win.

Stars goaltender Tomáš Vomá?ka (11-14-1) turned away 34 of 37 shots in the win, while Team USA netminder Cameron Rowe (5-6-0) stopped 21 of 25 shots in the loss.

THIS WEEK...

Friday, February 9 @ Sioux Falls Stampede - 7:05 p.m.

Saturday, February 10 @ Des Moines Buccaneers - 7:05 p.m.

The Lincoln Stars continue their four-game road swing with a pair of road games against the Sioux Falls Stampede and Des Moines Buccaneers. The Stars have performed well against both the Stampede and Buccaneers, earning a combined 6-1-0-0 record with wins in both games against the Stampede. The Stars make their first trip to Sioux Falls and third to Des Moines. The Stars are 49-39-3-7 against Sioux Falls since 2002-03 and 61-31-0-3 against Des Moines in the same span.

The Sioux Falls Stampede and Des Moines Buccaneers split a two-game weekend with a 2-0 win for the Stampede on Friday night and a 3-2 shootout win for the Buccaneers on Saturday night. Stampede forwards Kevin Conley and Jaxon Nelson were the only goal-scorers in Friday's game, but both teams went back and forth on Saturday night. Buccaneers forward Julian Napravnik and Stampede forward Adam Dawe split goals in the first period, and Walker and Buccaneers forward Tyler Paquette split goals in the second period. Buccaneers forward Mike Hardman scored the game-winner in the third round of the shootout. Stampede goaltender Mikhail Berdin stopped 32 of 34 shots over the weekend, and Buccaneers netminder Roman Durny halted 62 of 66 shots.

Western Conference Outlook:

The Omaha Lancers have climbed to the top of the Western Conference with a pair of wins, and the Waterloo Black Hawks slid into a share of second place after two wins of their own against the Tri-City Storm, who now share second place with Waterloo. The Sioux Falls Stampede and Fargo Force each split their weekends with the Stampede taking three of four points. The Sioux City Musketeers rebounded this weekend to win two of three games this week, and the Lincoln Stars won all three games to come within five points of a playoff spot. The Des Moines Buccaneers split their two-game road weekend.

IN THE NEWS...

Former Stars forward Zach Aston-Reese ('10-'13) made his NHL debut on Saturday night with the Pittsburgh Penguins against the New Jersey Devils. Aston-Reese played three seasons with the Stars, totalling 50 points (16g, 34a) through 138 games and was named to the 2012 USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game. He finished 12th all-time in scoring for Northeastern University following 148 points (66g, 82a) through 145 career collegiate games. Prior to joining the Penguins, Aston-Reese played 51 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL) and earned 29 points (9g, 20a) this season before receiving the call-up.

Stars forward Tristan Ashbrook was named USHL Forward of the Week following his six-point performance last week. The first-year forward tallied three points in Tuesday's win against Sioux City, the game-winning goal on Friday and another two assists on Saturday. His doubled his multi-point game total to four games this year and improved his point total to 17 points (8g, 9a). He's the second player to earn league weekly honors this season following Carter Long's USHL Defenseman of the Week honors on December 18.

STAR BITS...

The Stars scored 16 goals over the last week and vaulted themselves to their third three-game win streak of the season. The team has held opponents to three goals or less in four-straight games while averaging 4.25 goals per game in that span. The Stars' last three-game win streak game from November 4-17 when they scored 14 goals in the same span. 11 of the 16 goals scored came from different players, and goaltender Tomáš Vomá?ka earned wins in all three games.

The win on Saturday night marked the second third period comeback victory this season and the first ending in regulation time. The only other comeback came on January 6 against Sioux City when forward Gustaf Westlund scored on the power play with 8:20 left in regulation to send the game to a shootout. The two goals split 12 seconds apart by Collin Peters and Zach Dubinsky on Saturday were the fastest two goals scored this season, surpassing a two-goal, 23-second stretch on January 16 against Des Moines. The Stars are now 7-8-0-1 in one-goal games.

Check out the Lincoln Stars Statistics

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United States Hockey League Stories from February 6, 2018


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