Stampede Come Up Short Against Lincoln At Fall Classic

SIOUX CITY, IA -- The Sioux Falls Stampede tallied two power play goals, but couldn’t stop a relentless Lincoln Stars club, falling 4-3 in the first game of the USHL Fall Classic West in Sioux City on Friday.

The loss dropped the Herd’s preseason record to 1-2-0 heading into their final preseason game Saturday night against the host Musketeers. Tyler Nanne, Will Graber and Joey Marooney tallied goals for the Herd while Stefanos Lekkas stopped 22 of 26 shots in goal for the Herd.

The Stampede grabbed the first goal of the game on the power play just 3:03 in when Dillon Eichstadt and Dakota Joshua teamed up to find Nanne at the left point. Nanne took the puck and one stride towards the net before wristing a shot through traffic and past Lincoln netminder Cam Hackett to give Sioux Falls a 1-0 edge.

It stayed that way until the 14:33 mark of the first when August Von Ungern-Sternberg weaved his way through the slot and wristed a shot past the glove side of Lekkas to make it 1-1.

The Herd would again go on the power play minutes later and once again take advantage when Graber took a pass in front of the net from Eduard Simun and backhanded a shot into the back of the net. Nanne also had an assist that gave the Herd a 2-1 edge at the end of one period. Sioux Falls outshot Lincoln 10-7 in the period.

Lincoln tied the game up 3:34 into the second period when Michael Gillespie found Chris Klack who found a way past Lekkas to make it 2-2.

Sioux Falls would respond six minutes later when Marooney took a pass from Daniel Warpecha inside the right circle and blasted a shot into the upper right hand corner of the net to give Sioux Falls a 3-2 edge.

The Stars continued the trend of responding after a Stampede goal when Patrick Polino picked off a Stampede pass in the Herd’s zone, zipped a pass into the left circle to Dominick Sacco who sent a pass across the crease to Max Humitz and who tapped the pass into an open net to make it a 3-3 game.  Lincoln outshot the Stampede 11-5 in the period.

The Stars took their first lead of the night, and it proved to be the difference, at 3:05 of the third period when Tye Ausmus sent a pass in the slot to Von Ungern-Sternberg who ripped a shot past Lekkas for his second of the night and gave the Stars a 4-3 edge.

The Herd tried to rally late in the game, pulling Lekkas for an extra attacker, but Hackett and the Lincoln Stars held strong, holding off the Stampede for the victory.

Sioux Falls finished the night 2-for-4 on the power play while stopping the Stars on all five of their attempts.

The Herd will close out their exhibition schedule Saturday night when they face the Musketeers at 7:05 PM.

Courtesy:  Sioux Falls Stampede