Men's Ice Hockey 4/26/2025 9:08:00 PM Joel Norman

STARS EVEN UP SERIES, DEFEAT BLACK HAWKS

THREE-GOAL FIRST PERIOD LEADS TO WIN

The Lincoln Stars bounced back from a Game 1 loss by defeating the Waterloo Black Hawks, 4-3, in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on Saturday night at the Ice Box.

Lincoln came out racing to begin the night, netting three goals on its first 12 shots. With Waterloo on the attack, a pass at the near side of the net hit off Griffin Brown's skate and perfectly rolled to Layne Loomer. He sped the other way and set up Matthew Maltais at the far-post two minutes into the game for the games first tally as the Stars struck first for the second straight day.

Lefty Markonidis scored on a two-on-one rush 1:27 later as another Black Hawks' offensive zone sequence went awry. After an errant centering pass missed its target, Markonidis one-handed the puck off the far wall and a defender to the neutral zone, sped into the attacking end with Aiden Janz and one man to beat and kept it for his second goal in as many days.

"We had a good start today," Markonidis said. "It's something we've done all year. (Maltais) got the goal early and it got us going. Obviously we love to start it off that way."

Ethan Weber made it a three-goal first period with his first tally of the postseason at the 12:55 mark. He attempted a pass through to Jack Pechar, had the puck bounce back to him and quickly pulled the trigger to slip the puck inside the near post.

Alex Pelletier scored for the third time in the Clark Cup Playoffs and for a second straight game on a one-timer high and in between the circles. Daniel Shlaine carried the puck over the blue line near side, looked over his right shoulder at Hunter Anderson, but instead fed the puck to Pelletier further to his right at the 5:17 mark of the second.

Hunter Ramos answered 53 seconds later to break up the shutout and put the Black Hawks on the board with a wrist shot inside the near post from the right dot.

Kaeden Hawkins and Brendan McMorrow drew the visitors within one goal with a pair of-six-on-five goals at the 17:53 and 19:39 marks of the third, respectively.

Games 3 and 4 are at Young Arena on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. The puck drops at 6:35 both nights and fans can catch the action on Mixlr and FloHockey. Game 5 would be May 3 at the Ice Box, if necessary.

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