USHL Lancers' Holiday Short, Happy
BY MIKE PATTERSON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
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An Omaha Lancers' victory Wednesday night against the Tri-City Storm helped make for a
happy Thanksgiving at Coach Mike Hastings' house.
Hastings hopes that feel-good attitude stretches into the weekend as his Lancers face a
pair of home games. Omaha plays host to Dubuque tonight and Des Moines on Saturday
night in two 7:05 contests at Ak-Sar-Ben.
"That win (7-2 over Tri-City) made today a lot nicer for a lot of people," Hastings said. "I'm hoping we can sustain the
kind of first-period pressure we showed in that game."
Omaha jumped to a 3-0 lead against the Storm and was never threatened. The victory moved the Lancers' record to
9-0-1 in games in which they scored the first goal.
"Getting that first one always gives you that shot of confidence," Hastings said. "Obviously, we're a lot more
comfortable when we're not playing from behind."
Hastings also was pleased to see some different names popping up on the game scoresheet Wednesday night.
Forward Ryan Ronkowski had a pair of goals and forward Jim Dahl, in his second season with Omaha, chipped in
a pair of assists.
"We need guys like that to contribute," Hastings said. "It seems like it's been the same handful of guys scoring for
us, and we need to spread that around more to be successful."
Omaha enters tonight's game with a 9-5-3 record. Dubuque enters the game with a 6-6-1 mark after defeating the
U.S. National team 2-1 on Wednesday night.
The Buccaneers, who play tonight at Lincoln, are 12-3-2 after a 5-4 shootout loss against Cedar Rapids on
Wednesday night. Des Moines still holds a five-point lead over the Lancers in the West Division of the United States
Hockey League.
"Obviously, we have an opportunity to make this a very successful week," Hastings said. "We did a good job of just
focusing on Tri-City the other night and now we need to make sure our focus is just on Dubuque. After that game,
then we can worry about Des Moines."
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