Valesano nails penalty shot goal in OT for Musketeers

Opening night doesn’t get much more exciting than this one.

Connor Valesano, 20, from Duluth, MN fired the game winner on a penalty shot, lifting the Sioux City Musketeers to a 4-3 overtime edge against the host Fargo Force at Scheels Arena Friday (Sept. 25) night.

Other opening night action saw Waterloo Blackhawks picking up a 4-2 win against the Thunder at Bloomington; the host Lincoln Stars edging Des Moines Buccaneers 3-2 and Tri-City Storm downing the Omaha Lancers 5-1 on home ice.

Musketeers 4 at Force 3 (ot)

Teams were even after each segment, both scoring once in the opening period, two more in the middle frame and scoreless down the stretch.

Brian Rigali, 18, from Green Oaks, IL; Jackson Keane, 18, from Manitoba and Teemu Pulkkinen, 20, from Finland scored the other Musketeer goals and Cameron Gornet, 19, from St. Louis turned aside 25 shots to collect the overtime win in goal.

Ian Scheid, 20, from Coon Rapids, MN and Riley Tufte, 17, from Ham Lake, MN both picked up a goal and an assist in the game, Zach Yon, 19, from Grand Forks, ND scoring the other goal. Robbie Beydoun, 18, from Plymouth MI handled 20 of 24 shots in goal for the Force.

The Musketeers were scheduled to stay on the road, moving on to Sioux Falls to face the Stampeders tomorrow night (Sept.26) and Fargo is out of action until next Friday (Oct 2) at Cedar Rapids.

Blackhawks 4 at Thunder 2

Alec Mehr, 18, from California opened the scoring for the host Thunder, 10:46 into the contest, but the Hawks scored the next four — one each in the first and third and another pair of unanswered middle period markers — before Van Barr, 18, from Kansas City, MO closed out the scoring with the second Thunder goal on a powerplay 6:22 into the third.

Sam Rossini, 17, from Inver Grove Heights, MN and David Cotton, 18, from Texas both picked up a goal and assist for the Hawks, Yuri Terao, 20, from Japan and Georgs Golovkovs, 20, from Latvia both adding two assists. Shane Bowers, 16, from Nova Scotia and Nick Swaney, 18, from Lakeville, MN scored the other goals for the Hawks.

Cale Morris, 19, from Colorado made 19 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Blackhawks and Logan Halladay, 19, from North Carolina stopped 23 for the Thunder.

Waterloo will play its home opener Saturday (Sept 26 against the Muskegon Lumberjacks and Bloomington will be at Green Bay to play the Gamblers.

Buccaneers 2 at Stars 3 

Ludvig Hoff, 19, scored with 3:48 to to go, lifting the host Lincoln Stars to a 3-2 win at the Ice Box.

William D’Orsi, 18, from Massachusetts scored both of the other goals and Patrik Virtanen, 20, from Finland made 24 saves to earn the win in goal.

Wyatt Bongiovanni, 16, from Birmingham, MI and Ty Pelton-Byce, 18, from Verona, WI scored the Buccaneer goals, both with help from Georgy Gorodetsky, 20, from Russia. Nick MacNabb, 19 from Indianapolis, IN made 25 saves in goal for the Bucs.

Stars will make the trip to Cedar Rapids tomorrow night (Sept. 26) and the Bucs will play on home ice against the Omaha Lancers

Lancers 1 at Storm 5

The Storm completed all of its scoring with three goals in the first period and two more in the middle frame before Nathan Krusko, 19, from Georgia fired an unassisted goal in the fifth minute of the third to spoil the shutout bid of Matthew Greenfield, 20, from Florida. Greenfield made 21 saves in the game.

Carson Meyer, 18, from Powell, OH; Sam Sternschein, 17, from New York; Austen Long, 17, from Blaine, MN; Nico Sturm, 20, from Germany and Jake Wahlin, 19, from St. Paul each scored for the Storm. John Marino, 18, from Massachusetts had three assists in the game and Mattias Goranson, 20, from Sweden set up a pair.

Zackarias Skog, 20, from Sweden and Kris Oldham, 18, from Alaska both took a turn in goal for the Lancers, combining to stop 27 of 32 shots.

Lancers will play at Des Moines Saturday (Sept. 26) and Tri-City is off until next Friday (Oct 2) at Chicago.