Photo Courtesy of the Fargo Force [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/cb332508-e8fc-4dd0-89a0-86075c27dbeb.jpeg] Photo Courtesy of the Fargo Force After an exciting opening night of the 2025 Clark Cup Playoffs on Monday, the first round of action continues with Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round series between the No. 5-seed Fargo Force [https://fargoforce.com/]and No. 4 Sioux City Musketeers [https://musketeershockey.com/]. All three games (if necessary) will take place at Tyson Events Center in Sioux City. This is a rematch of last season’s Western Conference Finals, which saw the Force take the series in five games and go on to win the Clark Cup. Fargo won the previous post-season matchup against the Musketeers in 2023-24. However, Sioux City is hoping to continue the dominance in this series that they had over the Force in the regular-season series. The Musketeers went an impressive 7-0-1 against Fargo, who is hoping its post-season success last year will reverse that trend. The Musketeers finished the regular season 31-23-3-5 and 70 points. They went 16-12-0-3 at home. Giacomo Martino topped the USHL in scoring in 2024-25 with 74 points (32-42-74) in 62 games. He’s followed closely by teammate Landen Gunderson with 73 points (28-45-73), with Tate Pritchard ranking third on the Musketeers with 53 points (19-34-53). The Musketeers are looking to get back to the Clark Cup Finals, with their most recent championship in 2022. The Force ended the regular season 29-27-4-2, but are 4-6-0 over their last 10 games. They are 15-13-3-0 away from home and have lost their last four road games. The Force are led in scoring by Sam Laurila and Merril Steenari with 41 points. Laurila has eight goals and 33 assists, while Steenari has tallied 29 goals and 12 helpers. Ryan Zaremba has 33 points (14-19-33). Sioux City has the decided advantage on the power play, finishing the regular season at 22.09% (38/172), while Fargo comes in at 17.16% (35/204). On the penalty-kill, the Force finished the season at 80.51% (38/195) to Sioux City’s 84.21% (30/190). The stakes may not be as high as the Western Conference Finals of last season, but will be no less intense. Two of the last three Clark Cup championships have been captured by one of these two teams. Puck drop for games 1, 2 and 3 (if necessary) is set for 7:05 Pm CT Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
