The Lincoln Stars punched their ticket to the Western Conference Semifinals
The No. 6-seed Lincoln Stars became the first team in the first round of the 2024 Clark Cup Playoffs to punch their ticket to the Conference Semifinals. Lincoln will play No. 2-seed Sioux City, who earned a first-round bye.
The Stars scored two goals in every period en route to their 6-1 win over the No. 3-seed Waterloo Black Hawks on Tuesday.
Lincoln netminder Yan Shostak was outstanding, allowing just one goal on 40-shot attempts. The St. Cloud commit turned aside a combined 79 of 80 shots (0.988 SV%) in the two games against Waterloo.
Lincoln opened the scoring with two quick goals in the first period. Aiden Janz tallied his first career USHL goal at the 2:31 mark. Then, Ryan Spinale doubled up the Stars' lead less than two minutes later.
Lincoln and Waterloo combined for 24 shots on goal in the first period. However, Shostak stopped all 13 of the Black Hawks' attempts.
The second period began much like the first. Lincoln scored two quick markers. Dashel Oliver and Justin Mexico scored goals less than three minutes into the frame and 81 seconds apart.
Waterloo forced 17 shots on goal in the second period, but Shostak kept the Black Hawks off the board.
"We got great goaltending, but the biggest difference today is we got secondary scoring," Stars head coach Rocky Russo said in the postgame show. "Those guys actually carried the mail. They were a big reason why we had success."
Matt Maltais gave Lincoln a five-goal lead 55 seconds into the third period. Myles Hilman ended Shostak's bid for a second straight shutout with under five minutes left in regulation.
Oliver scored his second of the night to restore Lincoln's five-goal lead and put the game on ice.
"At the end of the day, we were able to execute a little bit more, and we defended a little bit harder," Russo said. We've got our hands full next series, but so does Sioux City because we're coming, and we're coming hard. I think it'll be a great five-game series, and I'm definitely looking forward to it."