Hockey: Lancers, Stars set to see full house at Civic

Omaha Lancers fans brought the Ticketmaster system at Civic Auditorium to its knees last week for the season opener against Tri-City.

The system was down for 20 minutes, delaying the start of the 7:20 p.m. game to 7:35 because fans were lined up out to Capitol Avenue waiting for tickets.

Team officials are confident a similar delay won't happen tonight, though the ticket demand could be even greater. Omaha's most intense rival, the Lincoln Stars — and their just-as-passionate fans — are coming to town for tonight's 7:05 game.

Though the Civic's hockey capacity is listed at 4,066, there were 4,399 people on hand for the Lancers' opener. With no Nebraska football game tonight, a few more Stars fans might be tempted to head down Interstate 80 for the game.

It also will be the teams' only meeting in the 2009 portion of the schedule. Lincoln and Omaha aren't scheduled to play again until Jan. 8 at Lincoln's Ice Box, the first of their three January meetings.

Both Lancers coach Bliss Littler and Stars coach Jim McGroarty understand what this rivalry means for both organizations.

“This is like the Red Sox-Yankees, Toronto and Montreal and Green Bay-Minnesota on a smaller scale,” McGroarty said. “It's great for our league to have these kinds of rivalries, because it tells how passionate the fans are for their home teams.”

Littler coached at Tri-City before coming to the Lancers last season. He said the Lancers and Stars were the two biggest rivals of the Storm.

“Neither of those compared with the intensity I went through with Omaha-Lincoln last year,” Littler said. “When you're part of it, you better get in quick or you'll get run.”

Lincoln won the United States Hockey League West Division last year, but like the Lancers, it went out in the first round of the playoffs. But McGroarty said the Lancers are better this year.

“They're more dangerous with more experience,” he said. “The key to road games is the first five minutes. We have to compete with them, try to contain their speed and control the puck and not turn it over.”

Littler said it's important for his team to be aggressive on offense and stay on top of the Stars, one of the biggest and most physical teams in the 14-team USHL.

“We have to get to their net because they do a good job in their own zone,” Littler said. “If the first shot gets there, they're good at moving the puck out of their zone.”

Lincoln was the most penalized team in the USHL a year ago by more than 300 minutes.

“Look at their penalty minutes and you see they don't have a lot of stick penalties,” Littler said. “They played rougher, but they've been very effective with that. You don't plan on more power plays, because you'll be going to the box with them.”

McGroarty said his team works hard at limiting “lazy” penalties because the roughing, physical penalties are easier to kill.

“Obviously we're a bigger team, and we play a physical game,” McGroarty said. “You better hope you have a good penalty kill, because we like to play that type of game.”

Contact the writer:

444-1201, alexsdad@mail.com

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