Home teams open USHL Conference finals with wins

The Chicago Steel and Sioux City Musketeers both took advantage of home ice to grab control of their respective United States Hockey League Conference Final series on Friday (April 28, 2017).

The Steel rallied back from a 3-1 deficit early in the third with three goals in 6:52, including both the tying and winning goals off the stick of Brannon McManus for a 4-3 win against the Dubuque Fighting Saints at Fox Valley Ice Arena.

Meanwhile the Musketeers pulled away with a pair of third period goals clinching a 5-2 win against the Waterloo Black Hawks at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City

Fighting Saints 2 at Steel 3

(Courtesy Dubuque Fighting Saints) — The Steel outshot the Saints 20-10 in the final frame, and caught fire as soon as Dubuque took a two-goal lead. Eric MacAdams struck early for the Saints, just 42 seconds into the third, on a 3-on-2 break. Scott Corbett added to the lead on a broken play that found paydirt.

The Saints have never scored fewer than three goals against Steel goaltender Ales Stezka in a game this season. However, the three goals were not enough. First, it was Jack Badini who broke through just over a minute after Corbett’s tally on the power play, which cut the lead to one. Then, it was McManus’ first tally of the night on a slick cross-ice setup.

Six minutes after his first, he got some help from teammate Mitch Lewandowski on a defensive zone turnover, and converted on the rebound off Jaxon Castor’s pads en route to the go-ahead goal.

The two other goals on the night happened in quick fashion in the second period. Following a marvelous save by Stezka at one end, Reggie Lutz converted on the rebound at the other end following a Jake Jaremko shot to make it 1-0 Steel. It took just over three minutes for the Fighting Saints to respond, thanks to Quinn Preston on a breakaway.

Castor made 29 saves in the loss, in which he made many outrageous saves on the night to give the Saints a chance to win. Stezka was his equal, stopping 23 shots on the night. Dubuque was unable to dent Chicago’s penalty kill on three opportunities. The Steel have not allowed a power play goal in the postseason. The Steel went 1-for-4.

These two teams go back at it on Saturday, April 29 for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final at the Fox Valley Ice Arena.

Black Hawks 2 at Musketeers 5

Another top prospect for the upcoming NHL draft, Eeli Tolvanen fired a pair of goals to help the host Musketeers past the Hawks in its opening contest.

Connor Ford opened the scoring 4:07 into the match for the Musketeers and Tolvanen added another late in the first, before widening the gap to 3-0 11:24 into the second.

The Black Hawks rallied back into the contest with a pair of goals by Ben Copeland, 50 seconds apart, late in the middle stanza.

Clinging to a one-goal lead, the host squad gains some insurance with a goal from Odeen Tufto just before the halfway mark of the final period and then an empty netter from Tarek Baker with 90 seconds to play.

Matiss Kivlenieks turned aside 31 of 33 to pick up the win in goal for the Musketeers while Robbie Beydoun stopped 24 in goal for the Black Hawks.

These two teams will get a day to regroup before going back at it on Sunday (April 30) at the Tyson Events Center again.