Men's Ice Hockey 3/2/2024 2:14:00 AM Joel Norman

MASA TIES GAME LATE, STORM TAKE EXTRA POINT

FERKODIC, MANGAN ALSO SCORE

Martin Masa forced overtime with 2:13 remaining in regulation but the Lincoln Stars dropped the weekend opener, 4-3, to the Tri-City Storm on Friday night at the Ice Box.

Trevor Connelly scored a power-play goal 21 seconds into overtime after the Stars were penalized with six seconds left in the third.

Lincoln (20-21-2-2) erased two different deficits to earn a point but could not overcome the second Tri-City (23-15-4-4) power-play goal of the night. It marked the fourth time this season that the Stars earned a point when trailing after 40 minutes.

The Stars trailed 2-0 11:37 into the game after the Storm scored twice on their first three shots. Jared Mangan cut the deficit in half by cashing in on a pass from his left from Matthew Maltais at the 18:21 mark of the first.

Lincoln switched things up on the power play and it led to their first game-tying goal. Max Ferkodic one-timed a cross-ice feed 10:32 into the second.

Ryan Smith gave Tri-City the lead again at the 17:02 mark of the second on an odd-man rush. Masa evened the game up on a wrist shot from the right-wing circle that sent the packed house of 3,812 into a frenzy.

Connelly wired home the puck from just above the same spot to end the game after a slashing penalty late in regulation to put the Storm up a skater.

The two teams match up again Saturday night in Kearney at 6:05. They'll wrap up the weekend tripleheader on Saturday at the Viaero Center 4:05 p.m.

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