The Musketeers handed the Fargo Force its first loss of the 2024 Clark Cup Playoffs
A pair of 2024 USHL Clark Cup Playoff games on Monday night saw the Sioux City Musketeers top the Anderson Cup Trophy-winning Fargo Force in Game 2.
The Muskies and Force each tallied a goal in the second period before Sioux City scored three times in the final 20 minutes of play to secure a 4-1 victory over Fargo.
Meanwhile, the Dubuque Fighting Saints took a 2-0 series lead over the Muskegon Lumberjacks. The Saints jumped out to a 4-0 lead and hung on to win 4-3 over the Jacks.
Let's take a closer look at both games.
Sioux City 4, Fargo 1
The game remained scoreless through the first 27 minutes of play before Hagen Burrows and Giacomo Martino connected on a 2-on-1 rush into the offensive zone, with Burrows wristing a shot past Fargo's Hampton Slukynsky.
Less than two minutes later, Jake Fisher evened the score after Michael La Starza's shot from the left-wing circle deflected off his teammate into the Sioux City net.
Kaden Shahan broke the 1-1 tie at the 13:54 mark of the third period, sniping a centering feed from Ethan Gardula. With the Force net empty, Colin Kessler scored a pair of empty-netters to put the game out of reach.
Sioux City netminder Samuel Urban stopped 33 of 34, including 26 of 27 between the first and second periods.
Dubuque 4, Muskegon 3
The Fighting Saints scored three times in the first period and outshot the Muskegon Lumberjacks 29-23 in their 4-3 win on Monday.
Juraj Pekarcik opened the scoring just over two minutes into the game off a beautiful feed by Erik Pahlsson from behind the net. Pahlsson then doubled up Dubuque's lead at the 12:44 mark of the first period on a backhanded shot in front of the Muskegon net.
Sunday's overtime hero, Jayden Jubenvill, made it a 3-0 lead for the Saints just 27 seconds later, wristing a shot from the low slot past Muskegon netminder Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev.
In the second period, Noah Powell tallied his second goal of the postseason, burying his own rebound after the initial shot was denied.
Muskegon responded with two goals less than nine minutes apart to make it a two-goal deficit. Bauer Berry scored his first of the playoffs, and David Klee followed late in the frame.
Jacks' Easton Young closed the gap even further at the 7:20 mark of the third period, but the deficit proved too great to overcome.
Fighting Saints netminder Kevin Reidler turned aside 20 of 23 and earned his fifth straight win this postseason.
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