By Tim Seaman:
The Sioux City Musketeers (20-23-1) continued their hot play with an impressive 6-3 win over the Western Conference leading Omaha Lancers (26-15-3) at Tyson Events Center.
Sioux City won its third straight game against Omaha despite dressing only 15 skaters due to suspensions stemming from the Sioux Falls brawl on Saturday night.
The Musketeers received goals from five different players including a pair from sparkplug Josh Erickson who now has two game winning goals in his last three games against the Lancers.
Brad Robbins, David Henry, Kyle Criscuolo and David Goodwin also scored for Sioux City who improved to 3-3-0 in the season series against Omaha.
Backup goaltender Austin Priebe (3-6-0), starting for the first time since December 30th, 2011 because of a suspension to starter Matt Skoff, played admirably in net and made 21 saves for his first win since mid-November.
The Musketeers scored all six goals at even strength and were opportunistic offensively by cashing in five times on Omaha starter Alex Lyon (18-11-3) and then adding an empty netter despite being held to just 22 shots
Sioux City is now 8-2-1 in its last 11 games and moved to within seven points of 4th place Fargo while jumping to three points up on idle Des Moines who the Musketeers see twice this weekend.
Despite the lopsided final, Sioux City would once again play from behind against an Omaha team that has scored the first goal in 5 of the 6 games in the season series.
Max Vallis put Omaha up 1-0 on a power play goal at 10:23 of the first period but Sioux City quickly countered and notched the final two goals of the period.
After a big save by Priebe on Lancer sniper Casey Bailey, leading goal scorer Brad Robbins evened things up 13:52 with a rocket slap shot from the top of the right circle.
Robbins notched his 20th goal of the season and is currently one of just ten USHL players to accomplish that feat.
Center David Henry then continued his torrid offensive run with his 10th goal of the season after he jammed in a fat Lyon rebound after a Jordan Boucher-Gould shot at 18:14.
Henry became the 6th Musketeer to join the double-digit goal club and he now has five goals in his last nine games played.
Sioux City took that 2-1 lead into the second period and quickly extended the lead to 3-1 when Kyle Crisucolo jammed home his 15th of the season at 5:30 after he followed up a Robbins rush.
Omaha defenseman Kenney Morrison got Omaha within one with the Lancers second power play goal of the evening at 11:58 but Sioux City would regain their two goal margin before the end of the middle frame.
Shortly after Omaha's Ben Ostile came out of the penalty box, Erickson notched his first goal of the night and 5th of the season at 17:26 when his seeing eye shot from 40 feet somehow got by a screened Lyon.
The goal gave the Musketeers a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes.
The Lancers wouldn't go away quietly as the Western Conference's best offense cut the lead to one when center Tanner Lane's backhand squeaked past Priebe's right pad to make it 4-3 at 5:21 of the third period.
But Sioux City, shorthanded and all, played excellent defensive hockey down the stretch and the Musketeers finally found some insurance at 16:16 when Boucher-Gould's shot from the high slot deflected off Erickson's skate for his second of the night.
The goal gave Sioux City a 5-3 lead, Priebe was solid when called upon in the final five minutes, and Goodwin's empty netter at 19:37 sealed the deal for a 6-3 win.
The Musketeers now have a key home and home series with the Des Moines Buccaneers this weekend with the first game taking place on Friday, February 24th right back at Tyson Events Center at 7:00 PM.
