SIOUX CITY, IA. – The Tri-City Storm began the 2022 calendar year with a 4-3 road victory over the Sioux City Musketeers at the Tyson Events Center on Sunday afternoon. Cole O’Hara, Jeremy Wilmer, Dane Dowiak, and Ilya Nikolaev all netted goals in the Storm victory. Arsenii Sergeev recorded his league-leading 16th win of the year in goal for Tri-City.
Cole O’Hara scored his 12th goal of the season with under five minutes to play in Sunday’s 1st period to give the Storm a 1-0 lead in the game. O’Hara’s goal was scored at 15:57 of the 1st period and was assisted by Mitchell Miller and Nate Benoit. The Storm outshot the Musketeers 9-8 in the 1st period and led the game by one goal entering the 2nd period.
Sioux City’s Grant Slukynsky scored his third goal of the season in the opening minute of Sunday’s 2nd period to tie the game at 1-1. Bennett Schimek and Tomi Leppanen each recorded an assist on the play. Less than one minute later, at 1:17 of the 2nd period, Jeremy Wilmer scored his 11th goal of the season to give the Storm another lead in the game. Wilmer’s goal was assisted by Ilya Nikolaev. The Musketeers outshot the Storm 8-6 in the 2nd period, and Tri-City carried a 2-1 lead into Sunday’s 3rd period.
Dane Dowiak scored his fourth goal of the season for the Storm at 2:28 of the 3rd period to give Tri-City its first two-goal lead of the game. With less than four minutes to play in the 3rd period, Owen McLaughlin scored his first goal of the game and 12th goal of the season to cut Tri-City’s lead in half. McLaughlin’s goal was scored on the powerplay at 16:22 of the period. Less than two minutes later, Ilya Nikolaev netted his eighth goal of the year on the powerplay to give the Storm another two-goal lead in the game. Nikolaev’s goal was assisted by Cole O’Hara and was scored at 18:00 of the 3rd period. Owen McLaughlin netted his second goal of the game and 13th goal of the year with 68 seconds left to play in the 3rd period to bring the game to a 4-3 score. McLaughlin’s goal was netted shorthanded and was the final goal of the game. Sioux City outshot Tri-City 10-5 in the 3rd period and 26-20 overall in the game.
Arsenii Sergeev made 23 saves on 26 of Sioux City’s shots on net to record the victory in goal for Tri-City. Alex Tracy recorded the loss in goal for the Musketeers after turning away 16 of the Storm’s 20 shots on goal in the game.
The Storm improved to 20-5-1-0 in the win and currently lead the USHL’s Western Conference standings by nine points. Tri-City’s points percentage (.788) is the best in the league this season. Tri-City has now won four of six head-to-head matchups against Sioux City this season.
Tri-City hits the ice again on Friday, January 7th, in a road game against the Des Moines Buccaneers. Puck drop for the game is set for 7:00pm CT.
