• Box Score: Tri-City 3, Omaha 2
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There's more to the story than the bad bounce of a puck that led to the winning goal in Friday's 3-2 Tri-City victory over the Omaha Lancers.
A postgame review of the goal awarded to Storm forward Mike Vecchione shows that another Tri-City player was deep in the crease and interfered with Lancers goalie Thatcher Demko's ability block the shot.
Though Demko was knocked down by a teammate during the play, where the Tri-City player was positioned still denied Demko a chance to move to that spot.
But the officials didn't wave off the goal — it came 25 seconds after Omaha had tied the game and with 1:18 remaining — and the Storm hung on for their second consecutive USHL win over Omaha.
The rush toward the Omaha goal on the decisive play began when Tri-City gained possession of the puck after an Omaha pass was redirected off an official's skate near the center line.
“We outplayed them but we didn't find a way to win,” Lancers coach Mike Aikens said. “We had chances to make some plays and we didn't. There were just enough times where we didn't work as hard as we need to work.”
The loss in front of 3,877 at Civic Auditorium dropped the Lancers (21-12-2) back into a tie for first place in the Western Conference with Lincoln, which defeated Des Moines 5-2 Friday. Omaha is 2-2 this season against the seventh-place Storm (13-23-0).
In a first period when the teams combined for just six shots, the Storm managed to slip one of their three past Demko. Forward Brian Ward, who began the season at Dartmouth College, scored his first goal for Tri-City by successfully finishing off a 3-on-2 fast break following assists from Vecchoine and Trevor Moore.
Tri-City made things twice as tough for the Lancers early in the second period when Nick Lappin scored his team-leading 18th goal at 4:56. Lappin slapped home a shot from the left wing, with Kenny Brooks and Brad Schierhorn earning the assists.
“Give them (Tri-City) a lot of credit, they worked extremely hard and make you work hard to create your scoring chances,” Aikens said. “We had a lot of chances in the second period and we just didn't finish.”
The Lancers had 22 shots on goal in the middle stanza and managed to trim the Storm's lead to one when Casey Bailey won a battle for a loose puck at the top of the goal crease for his team-leading 18th goal of the season at 12:12.
Jimmy Murray and Nolan Zajac got the assists on the goal that ran Bailey's scoring streak to eight games.
Both teams leaned on their defenses much of the third period before the Lancers finally scored the equalizer at 18:17. A forecheck below the goal line by Murray and a centering pass by Bailey into the slot that Greg Gozzo knocked in for his 15th goal of the season.
Murray's assist moved his season total to 30, tops in the USHL.
The Lancers continue their busy weekend Saturday with a 7:05 p.m. road game against Des Moines before returning to Civic for a 5:05 p.m. game Sunday against Fargo.
Contact the writer:
402-618-4113, alexsdad@mail.com
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