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The Sioux Falls Stampede saw their three-game winning streak come to an end Wednesday night when they fell 5-3 to the Omaha Lancers at Ralston Arena. Leading 1-0 heading into the second period, Sioux Falls allowed five unanswered goals in the second and were unable to recover. Dennis Kravchenko led the way with a goal and an assist while Charlie Lindgren stopped 20 of 25 shots before David Jacobson came in and stopped all four shots faced in relief.
Despite the loss, Sioux Falls has still won 15 of their last 18 games and are 5-2-0 on their current nine-game road trip. The Stampede are now 28-10-1 overall and remain four points ahead of Fargo for first place in the Western Conference.
The Stampede grabbed the first goal of the game 6:01 in when Dennis Kravchenko tallied his 15th goal of the season. Matt Van Voorhis ripped a shot from the left point that bounced off the back board and bounced back through the crease where Kravchenko tapped the puck into the net to give the Herd a 1-0 lead. The rest of the period went back-and-forth with teams exchanging some scoring opportunities, but the game remained 1-0 at the end of the period with Sioux Falls outshooting Omaha 13-12.
It was a nightmare second period for the Herd who allowed five unanswered goals. The Lancers scored just 52 seconds in when Trent Samuels-Thomas one-timed a pass in the slot past Lindgren to make it a 1-1 game. Minutes later, the Lancers took the lead when Robbie Baillargeon took a pass inside the left circle from Jake Randolph and one-timed the puck into the net. Tyler Hynes made it 3-1 at 9:29 and Dominic Racobaldo made it 4-1 when the ripped a shot from the top of the left circle into the upper left hand corner of the net. The Lancers poured some salt on the wound with 23 seconds remaining when Connor Chatham knocked in a loose puck in the crease to give the Lancers a 5-1 lead after two periods. Omaha outshot the Herd 13-11 in the period.
Sioux Falls showed improved play in the third and got back on the board 8:16 into the third period when Ian Mansfield tallied his first goal of the season. Mansfield took a pass in the slot from Jake Ahlgren and wristed a shot past the stick side of Omaha netminder Alex Lyon. Just over two minutes later, the Stampede struck again when C.J. Franklin scored his team leading 19th goal of the season. Dennis Kravchenko took the puck through the neutral zone and raced down the right wing boards before sliding the puck onto the tap of Franklin who quickly fired the puck into the net. The Herd controlled much of the play in the period, outshooting Omaha 11-4, but couldn’t get any closer and came up short on the night. David Jacobson played in goal during the third period, stopping all four shots faced.
Sioux Falls outshot Omaha 35-29 on the night and went 0-for-2 on the powerplay while Omaha was 0-for-1.
