Lizotte powers Force win in opener

The United States Hockey League opened the 2016-17 regular season this past weekend with a number of highlights.

All teams played at least once this past Friday and Saturday (Sept. 23-24) and five teams opened with a pair of contests.

Among the most impressive starts was Team USA who got wins from both its U-18 and U-17 teams to grab the early lead in the East Conference. Green Bay Gamblers and Muskegon Lumberjacks also played twice in the East, settling for weekend splits.

On the West side, the Omaha Lancers suffered a couple of tough losses and find themselves off to a rough 0-2 start while defending Clark Cup champs, Tri-City Storm collected a win and dropped a decision in overtime for a three-point opening weekend.

The Fargo Force opened with an impressive 7-4 win over the Lancers at Ralston Arena in Omaha and Blake Lizotte, 18 led the charge assisting on the first five Force goals.

Lizotte, a returning forward from Lindstrom, MN who has committed to attend St. Cloud State next fall, helped his team rally back from an early 2-0 deficit, setting up a pair of goals in the period’s final 6:52 to knot the score at 2-2 for the first break.

He set up two more in the middle period as the Force grabbed a 4-2 lead and wrapped it up with a feed on what appeared to be a clinching goal with under five minutes to play in the contest.

The host Lancers didn’t go down without a fight though, firing a pair to get back into the match with just under two minutes to go, but the Force put this one away with a pair of empty net markers

Also enjoying a solid start to the season was 19-year-old Jack Adams who fired a pair – the team’s first and the clincher into an empty Omaha cage, adding an assist for a three-point night. The Massachusetts native is already committed to Union University for next season.

On the defensive side, the most impressive start might have come from Sioux Falls Stampede netminder Jeremy Swayman.

A Storm blew in into the South Dakota community as the Tri-City squad peppered the 17-year-old netminder with Alaska with 50 shots through 67 minutes of regulation and overtime play. Finally, things were decided in a shootout, Swayman continuing his solid play with stops on two more shots to make goals by teammates Matthew Quercia (17, Massachusetts) and Eric MacAdams (19, Massachusetts – U of New Hampshire) bring a quick finish to the shootout.

The Force will be back in action with its home opener at Scheels Arena Friday (Sept. 30) against the Waterloo BlackHawks before traveling to Sioux City to face the host Musketeers on Saturday.

Other Friday night contests will see Team USA looking to build on its 2-0 start when it entertains the Youngstown Phantoms at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, MI; the Bloomington Thunder (0-1) will entertain the Chicago Steel (1-0) at US Cellular Coliseum; the Stampede (1-0-0-0) will make the trip to Cedar Rapids to play the Roughriders; Madison Capitols (0-1-0-0) will travel to Omaha to play the Lancers (0-2-0-0); The Musketeers (1-0-0-0) will make the trip to Tri-City (1-0-0-0); Dubuque Fighting Saints (1-0-0-0) will entertain the Green Bay Gamblers (1-0-0-0) and the Des Moines Buccaneers (1-0-0-0) will be in Lincoln to face the host Stars (0-1-0-0).

On Saturday (Oct. 1), Team USA will split to play a pair of contests, one team hosting the Phantoms with the other hitting the road to play in Muskegon against the Lumberjacks (1-1-0-0). The Roughriders will be in Bloomington to face the Thunder; the Chicago Steel will host the Dubuque Fighting Saints; Des Moines Buccaneers will host the Omaha Lancers; Fargo Force makes the trip to Sioux City to play the Musketeers, the Sioux Falls Stampede hosts the Waterloo BlackHawks and Lincoln Stars will be in Tri-City to play the Storm.