SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Stampede) — The Sioux Falls Stampede was able to pull out its third win in four games with Sunday evening’s 4-3 win against the Sioux City Musketeers. Goals from Grant Dillard, Will McDonough and Gennadi Chaly kept the team in it and tied the game at three until John McNelis found the back of the Musketeer net with just two seconds left in the game.
Sioux City owned the first period of play, scoring two goals in the middle ten minutes. The Musketeers’ first goal came on an even-strength attempt, while the second was during a powerplay advantage for the Musketeers after Grant Dillard was sent to the box for roughing 13:04 into the period.
Dillard redeemed himself in the second period when he scored his first career United States Hockey League goal and got the team on the board, now down by just one point. Dillard’s goal was assisted by Egor Barabanov and Zach Nehring. Sioux City answered back around six minutes later, on a powerplay, but didn’t realize that would be their last of the night. Finally, Will McDonough marked his second goal of the season a little over a minute later, putting the Herd within one goal.
After a checking from behind penalty was called on Sioux City’s Easton Jacobs, the Stampede was prepared to use the man advantage and not waste it. Gennadi Chaly tied the game up at three with just over 10 minutes to play in regulation, assisted by Kaz Sobieski and Tyler Borgula. With under one minute to play in regulation, the entire arena was prepared for the game to go into overtime. Luckily, John McNelis found the puck at the far-left faceoff circle and launched it toward Samuel Urban. The puck slid under Urban’s left pad and into the net, cementing the Stampede win.
Caleb Heil found his fourth win of the season this evening. Marking 17 saves on 20 attempts, Heil tallied a .850 save percentage with a 3.00 GAA. Heil is now 4-2-0 this season with an overall save percentage of .882 and GAA of 2.87.
Keeping with the high-shooting-percentage theme of the weekend, the Stampede found 28 of their shots hitting the net for an overall percentage of 14.3%. The Herd went one-for-three on powerplay opportunities and went two-for-four on the penalty kill.
The Stampede now prepares to head to Youngstown, Ohio on Friday and Saturday to take on the reigning Clark Cup Champions, the Youngstown Phantoms. This is the first time the two teams will have seen each other since November 23, 2019, when the teams split the weekend, the Herd winning 3-2 in overtime on night one then Youngstown taking night two, 4-2.
Following the weekend the Herd will be back in Sioux Falls to start the November stretch of nine home games and one away game. They’ll kick off what is being dubbed as MOOvember, in collaboration with Prairie Farms, on Friday, November 3rd at 7:05 p.m. versus the Lincoln Stars. This will be the first meeting for these two teams of the 2023-24 season. They’ll then host the Fargo Force for the MOOvember celebration on Saturday, Nov. 4th at 6:05 p.m. Tickets for all Stampede home games are available now through the KELOLAND box office, Stampede office, or any Ticketmaster outlets.
