The Lincoln Stars scored twice early in the first period and then two more times in the early stages of the third to defeat the Tri-City Storm, 4-1, on Friday night at the Viaero Center.
Cameron Whitehead earned his fifth consecutive win in between the pipes by stopping 22-of-23 shots. He has not suffered a regulation loss since Dec. 2 and helped the Stars snap a three-game losing streak at the Viaero Center. Whitehead moves into a tie for the second-best goals-against average (2.44) and the third-best save percentage (.918) in the USHL. His only goal allowed came on a breakaway late in the third with the Stars already up 4-0.
Lincoln (19-9-1) came out firing, scoring twice in the opening 3:40 on six shots before Tri-City (14-13-0-2) got its first shot of the game. Keaton Peters scored his 14th of the season 44 seconds in. Lincoln had previously given up goals in the opening minute in two of the three prior losses in Kearney. Jared Mangan drove in left side before finding a trailing Peters to his right to put the Stars on the board first.
Doug Grimes added to the Stars lead by crashing the crease and poking home a loose puck at 3:40 of the first. His ninth goal of the season marked his third consecutive game scoring and his ninth overall. That sent the Stars into the locker room up 2-0 after 20 minutes.
"We've had some struggles at times to start games here and they have a lot of energy in this building," head coach Rocky Russo said. "We really focused on making sure that we were attending to our details right off the hop. We love the fact that we scored not he second shift but more than anything we wanted to make sure that we kept them off the board. That was good and then we got a goal that essentially a power-play goal, may have come a second after the power play ended. Couldn't have asked for a better first period there by the guys."
Henry Nelson scored his second of the year against Tri-City and third overall on a high wrist shot from the top of the left circle 55 seconds into the third period. Tanner Ludtke made it 4-0 Stars with a power-play goal at the 4:57 mark of the frame. It marked his fourth consecutive tally on the man advantage and his 10th goal in the last 11 games.
Lincoln looks to stretch its winning streak to four games as it faces Tri-City again on Star Wars Night at the Ice Box. The puck drops at 6:05 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at lincolnstars.com.
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