• When: 7:05 p.m.
• Where: Civic Auditorium
• Radio: 1290 AM KKAR
• Box Score: Omaha 5, Lincoln 4, SO
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There’s always a healthy serving of drama when Omaha and Lincoln hook up for a hockey game, but the fans at Civic Auditorium Friday night got an extra big helping.
After six power-play goals, several fights, 26 total penalties and a six-round shootout, the Lancers somehow emerged with a 5-4 victory over the Stars.
Anthony Hamburg scored the game-winner in the sixth round of the shootout after Lancers goalie Thatcher Demko had denied Lincoln a half-dozen times. He had a moment to salute the crowd of 5,194 before he was mobbed by his teammates to celebrate their fifth consecutive win this season against their primary rival.
“Those goalies had to be saying ‘OK guys, I’ve done my job, I need your help out here,’ ” Lancers coach Mike Aikens said. “He (Demko) looked comfortable out there, and he’s a confident guy.”
The win allowed the 25-12-3 Lancers to increase their Western Conference lead over Lincoln (22-13-3) to six points.
After Omaha’s 3-2 win Jan. 21 that was chock-full of fights and ejections, tensions were running high through the crowd before the game. But both teams seemed to have put that behind them in the first period when six two-minute penalties were called.
The lone goal in the first 20 minutes was the first of two power-play goals from Omaha defenseman Kenney Morrison. His one-timer from the left point sailed over the left shoulder of Lincoln goalie Charles Williams to give the Lancers the lead at 16:09.
Kevin Roy, the USHL’s leading scorer, tied the game for the Stars at 8:19 of the second period with a power-play goal. The tension from the Jan. 21 game started to creep in just before that score, and things became even more intense during the next five minutes.
There were two ejections in the period — Omaha’s Ken Babinski for a board checking on icing game misconduct before Roy’s goal and Lincoln’s Luke Johnson for a spearing game misconduct before two Omaha goals put the Lancers up 3-1.
Mark Miller scored on a 5-on-3 power play at 14:54 before Morrison scored his second power-play goal of the game 37 seconds later. Morrison now has eight goals this season, all on the power play.
“Our power plays have been cranking pretty good lately,” Aikens said. “The old adage is get traffic to the goal and get to the net. Kenney Morrison has a bomb of a one-timer.”
Lincoln got one of those back before the second intermission when Dominick Shine won a battle for a loose puck at the top of Omaha’s goal crease for his third goal of the season at 16:42. That closed a second period in which 70 of the game’s 94 total penalty minutes were called.
The Stars tied the game for a second time 8:29 into the third period when Jared Hanson scored the first of his two goals, but Omaha quickly regained the lead when Jimmy Murray got loose behind the Lincoln defense and knocked home his 14th goal of the season to extend his goal-scoring streak to five games.
But Hanson took advantage of another one of Lincoln’s aggressive attacks to score his 20th goal of the season and tie the game for the third time. That was the sixth power-play goal of the game, and it came because the Lancers were whistled for having too many men on the ice.
“That was an idiotic penalty at that time of the game,” Aikens said. “It was a guy jumping too early. When you play a good team like that and give them enough chances, they’re going to score.”
Both teams got just one shot on goal in the five-minute overtime to set up the dramatic shootout.
“I was proud of our guys because they found a way to win,” Aikens said. “Give Lincoln a lot of credit for battling the way they did. They deserved the point they got, if not more.”
Contact the writer:
402-618-4113, alexsdad@mail.com
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