Stampede Stay Perfect At Home

The Stampedes home magic continued Saturday late afternoon as they blanked the Youngstown Phantoms 4-0 in front of 3,830 at the Sioux Falls Arena. The Stampede are a perfect 4-0-0 at home this season and improved to 5-3-0 overall while Youngstown fell to 4-5-0. Tony Calderone, C.J. Franklin, Dennis Kravchenko and Thomas Forgione all scored while Jan Obernesser earned his first career USHL shutout with 18 saves in goal.

The game got off to the start you would expect for two teams that have had a long weekend. Sioux Falls was able to shake off the bus legs 8:02 in when Tony Calderone scored when he took a pass in the slot from Kyle Schempp and slid across the ice batting the puck into the back of the net to give the Herd a 1-0 lead. A few minutes later Sioux Falls had another chance when Thomas Forgione was hauled down on a breakaway giving him a penalty shot, but his attempt sailed just wide and the game remained 1-0 after one period with the Herd outshooting the Phantoms 9-8.

Thats the way it would stay until 14:45 of the second when Cody Milans shot from the slot went off the left shoulder of Youngstown netminder Sean Romeo and bounced behind him into the crease. A mad scramble ensued, ending with C.J. Franklin sliding the loose puck into the back of the net to give Sioux Falls a 2-0 advantage.  Sioux Falls outshot Youngstown 13-6 in the period.

In the third the Stampede extended their lead at 10:39 when Jake Ahlgren fed Dennis Kravchenko at the Youngstown blueline and Kravchenko skated in alone, beating Romeo on the glove side to give Sioux Falls a 3-0 advantage. Youngstown tried to rally, but Obernesser was solid in goal and stopped every shot he faced on the night. Sioux Falls sealed the game at 17:38 when Forgione scored an empty net goal to give the Herd a 4-0 advantage.

The Herd finished the night 0-for-5 on the powerplay while Youngstown was 0-for-2. The Stampede outshot Youngstown 33-18 and salvaged a split on the weekend having lost Friday night in Waterloo, 3-0.

The Stampede return to action next weekend with two more home games when they host Sioux City and Tri-City at the Sioux Falls Arena on Friday and Saturday respectively. Game times are 7:05 PM and tickets are available at the Sioux Falls Arena Box Office.

Courtesy: Jim Olander, SF Stampede