While the Des Moines Buccaneers enjoyed a week off after sweeping their first round series against the Twin Cities Vulcans, the Lincoln Stars had a slightly more difficult path to their semi-final series.
With less than a minute to go Wednesday night in the deciding game five of their first round series against the Sioux City Musketeers, the Stars found themselves down 2-1 in a hostile environment.
The Stars had the Muskies exactly where they wanted them.
Over the course of the past three years, the Stars have become known for amazing late third period heroics. The trend started at the 1997 national tournament when the Stars scored two goals in the final 20 seconds of a round robin game and then went on to win in overtime. It continued against the Bucs in the playoffs last year, when the Stars scored two goals in the last two minutes before falling in overtime.
Earlier this season, Lincoln scored three goals in less than a minute late in the third period to pull out a 5-4 road win in Waterloo. And then three times in March, the Stars found themselves trailing heading into the third period in the Sioux City Auditorium. Three times, the Stars tied the game with the goaltender pulled in the final minute. And in two of those three cases, Lincoln came out with the win, including Wednesday's 3-2 victory that advanced the Stars to the second round.
For the Des Moines Buccaneers, the road to the semi-finals was a little smoother. The Bucs disposed of the Twin Cities Vulcans in three straight games, although once again, the end of the series came with an overtime goal. In this case, it was Dan Donnette who ended the Vulcans season and completed the sweep, giving the Bucs a 5-4 win in the final game.
During the regular season, the Bucs rewrote the USHL's record book Des Moines' 97 points obliterated the previous record of 84 points, their 48 wins topped the old mark of 42, and their 29 home wins easily surpassed the old mark of 25. In addition, the Bucs' 304 goals were the most posted by any USHL team in the 1990s.
Forward Pete Fregoe was named the USHL's most valuable player, as he won the league's scoring race with 103 points, 26 points than his nearest competitor. Goaltender Matt Carney tied for the league lead in save percentage at 92.1 percent.
If you haven't got the idea yet, the Bucs are good. And when you consider they have a 11-game winning streak against the Stars, it would be easy to say that this could be just a minor speed bump for the Bucs on the way to the Clark Cup.
The picture changes with the addition of a few more facts, however. Lincoln has improved significantly from the start of the season, and finished the regular season with 12 wins in its last 14 games. And the Stars have a lot of momentum after the thrilling end to their series in Sioux City.
Leading the way offensively in the first round for the Stars was Chris Fournier, who posted two goals and two assists in the first round. Former Buccaneer Eric Maksimenko played a pivotal role in the final game, scoring the Stars' first goal of the game and setting up Kyle Anderson's game-tying goal with 38 seconds left in the third period.
Fregoe, who scored 4 goals and added 3 assists in just three games, paced the Bucs in the first round. Peter Sejna scored 3 goals and added two assists, while Michael Chin had one goal and three assists.
The expected goaltending matchup will feature Des Moines' Matt Carney against Lincoln's Wayne Russell. Carney posted a 3.30 goals against average and a 88.5 percent save percentage in the first round, while Russell posted a 1.89 goals against average and an astonishing 93.8 percent save percentage in five games against the Muskies.
