Stars Win Sixth Consecutive Home Game
November 24, 2022 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Lincoln Stars News Release
Keaton Peters scored twice and Marian Mosko scored the game-winning goal to lead the Lincoln Stars to a 5-3 win over the Tri-City Storm on Wednesday night at the Ice Box.
Lincoln (11-5) opened up a three-games-in-four-days stretch with their sixth consecutive win at home. The Stars have not lost at home since their home opener against Sioux Falls on Sep. 30.
The second-period proved to be the turning point as Lincoln outscored Tri-City (6-9-0-1), 3-1. The Stars trailed the Storm 1-0 after 20 minutes but scored all three of their second-period goals after the second media timeout. The Stars came out of it on a power play and Peters cashed in on a one-timer in the slot off a feed from Michael Mesic to tie the game up.
Mesic set Peters up again at the 18:15 mark of the third to give the Stars their first lead of the game. Peters fanned on the feed from Mesic but the knuckling puck rolled past Storm netminder Nicklas Erickson to make it 2-1, Stars. That tally by Peters marked his second multi-goal effort of the season and the sixth two-goal game by a Stars skater.
Tri-City tied the game up on on power play goal when Graham Ganache one-timed a puck into the net on a backhander off a rebound but Boston Buckberger beat the buzzer by scoring with 4.2 second remaining in the second period. Antonio Fernandez connected on a pass to Buckberger in the right-wing faceoff circle and Buckberger cut to the net and deked past Erickson to tuck the puck into the net just past the far-post side to make it 3-2, Stars.
All told it was three second-period goals that gave the Stars the lead heading into the third and from that point on they would not trail again.
"It's easy sometimes to look towards a holiday and not keep our focus," Stars head coach Rocky Russo said. "They're excited to have an off day tomorrow and spend the day with their billets and hopefully their family that are in town but we had work to do tonight. I thought from the second half of the second period on that we were a different hockey team. We were the Lincoln Stars again."
Lincoln added to that lead when Mosko came out of the penalty box to score his first USHL goal at the 5:24 mark of the third. He received a pass near the blue line on the far point and dangled into the left-wing faceoff circle before firing a wrister above the left shoulder of Erickson top shelf.
"I was looking at the coaches with 10 second lefts on the penalty," Mosko said, "and they told me to head back to the bench and all of a sudden they told me to join the play. I joined it and got a great low-to-high pass from (Jared Mangan) and took the shot and it worked out."
Evan Werner scored his second of the game on the Storm's second power-play goal of the night at 12:11 of the third to draw them within one goal. That gave Tri-City three consecutive games in which they haves cored multiple power play goals and Werner five goals in just three games since joining the Storm last week.
Though it made things interesting, the Storm were not able to break through with the tying goal. Tanner Ludtke added an empty netter with 17 seconds to go for his seventh goal and Lincoln earned another win on home ice.
The Stars are off on Thanksgiving but then embark on two road games in two different towns beginning on Black Friday with their first trip to Des Moines followed by their first time at Sioux Falls on Saturday.
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United States Hockey League Stories from November 24, 2022
- Thankful for Defensive Scoring - Waterloo Black Hawks
- Stars Win Sixth Consecutive Home Game - Lincoln Stars
- Capitols Drop 5-3 Game to Green Bay - Madison Capitols
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