Lincoln Stars' Defense Dominates in Shutout
Defense was on display Nov. 17 in the United States Hockey League.
The Tri-City Storm allowed just 12 shots in a 4-0 shutout of the Des Moines Buccaneers while the Lincoln Stars limited the Fargo Force to 16 shots in a 3-0 victory.
Three members of the Storm defensive unit, all of whom are off to major college programs next year, got involved in the scoring when Tri-City was holding the Buccaneers without a shot while building a 2-0 lead in the first period.
Western Michigan commit Ronnie Attard scored the team’s second goal. Colorado College prospect Bryan Yoon, who assisted on the first goal, and Michigan commit Jack Summers, who assisted Attard, each finished the game plus-2.
Tri-City gave up only four shots through two periods before Des Moines managed eight in the third.
Lincoln shut down what had been the highest-scoring USHL offense entering the weekend.
The Stars gave up just four shots in each of the last two periods while protecting a 2-0 lead from the midway point in the first period until scoring again with 1:36 left in the game.
NEW LEADER: The Pittsburgh Vengeance are on top of the East Division and the entire North American 3 Hockey League in standings points after breaking a tie with the Metro Jets on Sunday.
The teams were not only tied in the standings, but also tied on the scoreboard through regulation before Pittsburgh pulled out a 4-3 road victory with Justin Bioni’s goal 2:59 into overtime.
Joel De Simone made 38 saves in the win as Pittsburgh improved to 18-6-0-0.
The Metro Jets, who have three games in hand, are 17-3-1-0 and among eight NA3HL teams with better winning percentages.
The North Iowa Bulls are unbeaten in regulation at 15-0-2-1 and the St. Louis Jr. Blues have the best winning percentage at 17-1-0-0.
The others with winning percentages above .750 are the Texas Brahmas, Yellowstone Quake, La Crosse Freeze, L/A Nordiques and Binghamton Junior Senators.
NAHL ROUNDUP: Alex Mella had a hat trick, including the game-winning goal for the Austin Bruins Saturday in a 5-3 home win to complete a North American Hockey League home-and-home sweep of the Minnesota Wilderness.
Mella, headed to Northeastern University next season, had two assists the night before, including on the game-winner, in a 4-2 road win.
Donovan Ott had the same production for the Johnstown Tomahawks in a weekend split with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights — a hat trick in one game and two assists in the other.
Nick Bowman posted a goal and five assists in two games to help the Coulee Region Chill remain unbeaten in regulation over the past eight games.
Defenseman Matt Acciaioli had six points in two games as the Corpus Christi IceRays extended their unbeaten-in-regulation streak to six games.
SCORING OUTBURST: Alex Rowella of the Connecticut RoughRiders climbed to eighth in the Eastern Hockey League in scoring when he registered six points and seven assists in three weekend games.
The RoughRiders (14-8-1) scored 24 goals on the weekend while extending their winning streak to four games.
ONE-TIMERS: Defenseman K’Andre Miller, a Wisconsin commit, was part of a shutout effort for the Under-18 squad Saturday to cap a a weekend in which he had two goals and four assists for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in two USHL games. … Steve “Yuro” Yurichuk is serving as interim head coach of the Willmar WarHawks (10-6-1) after Chris Blaisuis stepped down Saturday from the NA3HL team Saturday night. … With a balanced attack that features 11 players between 17 and 10 points, the Steamboat Wranglers are on top of the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League with a 13-4 record and nine-game winning streak.
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc. Photo by Hickling Images.