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After starting their 25th season of hockey against one of the USHL's expansion franchises, the Omaha Lancers will spend most of the season facing off against some longtime rivals.
Coach Bliss Littler and his charges will open the season Oct. 1 at 7:05 p.m. at Civic Auditorium against the Dubuque Fighting Saints, one of two new franchises to join the United States Hockey League.
Most of the home games will begin at 7:05 p.m., but one notable exception is the 4:05 p.m. start on Feb. 12 against the Tri-City Storm.
That's the date for the second annual Hockey Night in Omaha, when the University of Nebraska at Omaha will play Wisconsin in a 7:05 p.m. game at Qwest Center Omaha following the Lancers game.
The USHL schedule was posted Friday on the league website. With an expansion to 16 teams, the league has divided teams into a pair of eight-team conferences.
The top six teams in each conference will advance to the Clark Cup playoffs, and the first- and second-place teams will receive first-round byes.
Omaha is in the Western Conference along with the Des Moines Buccaneers, Fargo Force, Lincoln Stars, Sioux City Musketeers, Sioux Falls Stampede, Tri-City and Dubuque.
The Eastern Conference teams will be the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, Chicago Steel, defending USHL champion Green Bay Gamblers, Indiana Ice, Team USA, Waterloo Black Hawks, Youngstown Phantoms and the expansion Muskegon (Mich.) Lumberjacks.
A split into divisions was made to help teams cut travel costs. The Lancers will play eight games against Fargo, Lincoln, Sioux City, Sioux Falls and Tri-City — four at home, four on the road — and just two against the other 10 teams in the league.
That means 40 of Omaha's 60 games will be against some of the franchises with which the Lancers have had some memorable matchups during the past 2½ decades. Though they're in the same conference, there will only be two games against Des Moines and Dubuque because of the way the scheduling process evolved.
Last season the Lancers had an eight-game stretch of road contests from mid-February to mid-March. Their longest road swing this season will be six games, and that will be in a stretch of 13 days in mid-November.
With only one trip to places such as Youngstown, Muskegon, Green Bay and Indianapolis, many of the Lancers' trips will be shorter than in past seasons. After that six-game road trip, the Lancers return home for a Nov. 25 Thanksgiving night matchup against Sioux Falls.
The Lancers also were able to avoid scheduling home games in October and November that would have conflicted with Nebraska home football games. They also were able to schedule their first home game against Lincoln for Dec. 5 at 5:05 p.m. so that fans wouldn't have to choose between attending a Lancers game or watching the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 4.
All games are scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m. unless otherwise noted:
October: 1, Dubuque; 2, at Tri-City; 9, Sioux City; 15, Tri-City; 22, at Dubuque; 24, at Indiana, 5:05 p.m.; 29, Fargo.
November: 5, Sioux City; 7, Fargo, 5:05 p.m.; 12, at Sioux Falls; 13, at Fargo; 17, at Muskegon; 19, at Youngstown; 20, at Team USA (Ann Arbor, Mich.); 24, at Lincoln; 25, Sioux Falls; 27, Team USA.
December: 3, Sioux Falls; 5, Lincoln, 5:05 p.m.; 10, at Sioux City; 11, Muskegon; 17, at Cedar Rapids; 18, Lincoln; 31 at Tri-City.
January: 2, at Chicago, 3 p.m.; 7, Des Moines; 8, Lincoln; 13, Fargo; 14, at Lincoln; 16, Indiana, 5:05 p.m.; 22, Sioux City; 26, Fargo; 28, Tri-City; 29, at Sioux City.
February: 2, Sioux Falls; 4, at Fargo, 7:35 p.m.; 5, at Fargo; 11, at Sioux City; 12, Tri-City, 4:05 p.m.; 13, Sioux City, 5:05 p.m.; 18, Green Bay; 19, Lincoln; 22, at Tri-City; 25, at Waterloo; 26, at Green Bay.
March: 4, at Tri-City; 5, Cedar Rapids; 8, at Lincoln; 11, Tri-City; 12, at Des Moines; 13, Sioux Falls, 5:05 p.m.; 18, at Lincoln; 19, Waterloo; 23, at Sioux Falls; 24, at Sioux City; 26, Youngstown.
April 1: Chicago; 2, at Sioux Falls; 8, at Fargo; 9, at Sioux Falls.
Contact the writer:
444-1201, alexsdad@mail.com
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