USHL Showcase barrage

It was a showcase frenzy for the United States Hockey League Friday (Sept. 18) with 13 of the league’s teams and another from overseas all heading into action under the banner of three different Regional Showcase events.

Iowa Classic – Game 2 

Roughriders 3 Musketeers 2 (so)

The second day of play in the all-Iowa tournament kicked off with a thriller than went into a shootout before finally being settled, Cedar Rapids getting a 3-2 edge against the Sioux City Musketeers.

Callahan, Burke, 18, from Massachusetts  scored the lone goal of the first period, giving the Roughriders an early cushion and Pavel Tkachkov, a 16-year-old native of Moscow, Russia, doubled the margin with his goal just 42 seconds into the second period.

Jackson Keane, 18, from Colorado, finally found a way past Ryan Larkin, 18, from Clarkston, MI in the Roughriders’ goal with 8:41 to go in the second period and Brian Rigali, 18, from Green Oaks, IL completed the comeback with his tally, just 1:50 from the third period buzzer.

Teams played through seven scoreless minutes of overtime before heading to the shutout where Ross Colton, 19, from New Jersey scored in the first round and had that stand up as the winner in the three-round shootout.

Larkin went on to stop 30 of 32 shots, then made another three saves to nail down the shootout win and Cameron Gornet, 20, from St. Louis, MO handled 16 of 18 through the first 67 minutes and two of three in the shootout for the Musketeers.

Fighting Saints 8 Buccaneers 4

The Bucs fell to 0-2 on the weekend as the Dubuque Fighting Saints in a weird game that saw teams take turns offensively dominating a period.

The Saints got the first break, scoring a pair of unansered first period goals, but the Buccaneers rallied back with four straight in the second to carry a two goal margin into the final break.

The Saints exploded for a half dozen unanswered third period tallies turning a two-goal deficit into a comfortable four goal victory.

Colin Theisen, 18, from Monroe MI and Charlie Combs, 19, from St. Louis, MO scored two each for the Saints, Michael O’Leary, 17, from Nova Scotia assisting on three and Joey Keane, a 16-year-old defenseman from Homer Glen, IL setting up a pair.

Other Saints goals came from: Andrew Kerr, 20, from Duluth, MN; Evan Smith, 19, from Ontario; Baron Thompson, 16, from Lakeville, MN and William Knierim, 17, from Skokie, IL. Hunter Miska, 20, from North Branch Minnesota picked up the win in goal with 25 saves.

For the Bucs, Patrick Grasso, 19, from Des Moines, scored a pair with others scored by Georgi Gorodetsky, 20, from Russia and Ty Pelton-Byce, 18, from Madison, WI.

Battle in Lincoln

Storm 1 Force 2

The Fargo Force evened its record at the ‘Battle in Lincoln’ Showcase after taking a 2-1 edge from the Tri-City Storm in the first game of the day at Lincoln.

Austin Pooley, 19, from Ontario scored the game’s first goal 7:12 into the game for the Force and that stood up as the only goal of the contest until Wade Allison, 17, from Manitoba tied things up 8:01 into the final frame for the Storm

The Force pulled back in front an amazing two seconds later (according to the gamesheet), Jack Adams, an 18-year-old winger from Massachusetts pulling the trigger on the goal that ended up being both the game winner and final goal scored in the contest.

Stars 7 Red Bull Salzburg 1

The Stars backed up its shutout from the previous night with a 7-1 over the Red Bull Salzburg team in the final game of the day at Lincoln.

The Stars opened the scoring in the first minute and carried a 3-1 cushion into a scoreless second period before adding four more unanswered goals in the final 20.

William D’Orsi, 18, from Massachusetts collected a hat trick in the game for the Stars and Grant Jozefek, 17, from New Jersey, scored a pair. Anthony Wyse, 19, from Massachusetts collected three assists in the game with Ludvig Hoff, 18, from Norway; Patrick Polino, 20, from New York and Ethen Frank, 17 from Papillion, NE, each set up a pair. Christian Hausinger, 18, from Alaska picked up a goal and an assist and the other goal was scored by Joachim Weberg, 19, from Norway.

Cayden Primeau, 16, from New Jersey, made 16 saves to nail down the win in goal for the Stars.

Christof Wappis, 18, from Austria scored the lone goal for Red Bull.

Pittsburgh Showcase

Lumberjacks 5 Team USA U-18 4

Muskegon Lumberjacks opened play at the league’s out of the Midwest adventure with a 5-4 win at Pittsburgh.

The Lumberjacks opened up a 3-0 first period lead, but Team USA fought back with a pair in the second and the equalizer just 33 seconds into the final period.

A fourth straight goal gave the All Stars a 4-3 edge with 8:15 to go, but the Lumberjacks rallied back, tying the game 20 seconds later and moving in front to stay with 5:05 to play.

Matej Paulovic, 20, from Slovakia and a Fifth Round (149th Overall) Selection of the Dallas Stars at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, led the way with three goals and an assist for the Lumberjacks, Rem Pitlick, 18, from Plymouth, MN  adding two goals and a set up and Collin Adams, 17, from Brighton, MI had two asssists.

Trent Frederic, 17, from St. Louis, MO scored two and assisted on another for the National Development Team with other goals scored by Will Lockwood, 17, from Bloomfield Hills, MI and James Sanchez, 17, from Northbrook, IL.

Devin Cooley, 18, from California, handled 27 of 31 shots to collect the win for the Lumberjacks; Jake Oettinger, 16, from Lakeville MN, stopping 16 of 21 in goal for the U-18 squad.

Team USA U-17 4 Phantoms 6

In their game at Pittsburgh, the Youngstown Phantoms never trailed, rolling to a 3-1 first period lead, but clinging to a 4-3 cushion entering the third and the U-17’s tied things up 7:20 into the period.

Kevin Conley, 18, from Wausau, WI, sank his second of the game just past the halfway mark of the game and it stood up as the game winner with insurance coming from Connor Moore, 18, from Georgia who sank the final one into an empty Team USA goal.

Yushiro Hirano, 20, from Japan, Lukas Craggs, 19, from Elmhurst, IL and Garrett Hall, 18, scored the other Phantom goals.

Logan Hutsko, 16, from New Jersey fired a goal and added an assist for the U-17’s with other goals coming from: Joey Cassetti, 16, from California; Josh Norris, 16, from Oxford, MI and Grant Mismash, 16, from Edina, MN.

Colin DeAugustine, a 20-year-old goaltender from Pennsylvania, stopped 22 of 26 to grab the win for the Phantoms and Dylan St.Cyr, 16, from Nevada stopped 22 of 27 for the U-17 squad.

Sioux Falls Stampede 4 Omaha Lancers 1

One other game on Sept. 18 that was not officially a part of any of the Showcase events saw the Sioux Falls Stampede earning a 4-1 win against the Omaha Lancers at Ralston Arena in Omaha.

Single markers in the first and second had the Stampede up 2-0 heading to the third and the Lancers got to within one as JC MacLean, 18 from New Jersey got his team on the board just past the halfway mark of the period.

Csanad Erdely, 19, from Hungary restored the two goal margin with just 98 seconds to go and Joe Rutkowski, 18, from Crystal Lake, IL adding an empty net goal to his assist from earlier with 53 seconds to go. Nolan Nicholas, 20, from Ontario and Aaron Miller, 20, from Superior, WI scored the other Stampede goal while Ales Stezka, 18 from Czech Republic stopped 12 of 13 shots to pick up the win in goal.

Kris Oldham, 18, from Alaska turned aside 17 of 19 in goal for the Lancers.