PITTSBURGH, PENN.— The Sioux Falls Stampede earned its first win of the 2023-24 regular season on Wednesday evening with a 5-2 victory over the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Goals from Zach Nehring, Beckett Hendrickson, Egor Barabanov, JJ Wiebusch, and Tyler Borgula created the Herd's lead while goaltending efforts from Caleb Heil cemented the win.

Zach Nehring found the first goal of the evening for the Stampede, opening up the USHL regular season and earning his first goal in the league. Nehring's goal, scored with 3:02 left to play in the first, was assisted by Stampede returners Jaksen Panzer and Micah Berger.

Beckett Hendrickson started the second period strong with a goal just 1:48 into the period, assisted by Chris Pelosi. Egor Barabanov soon followed suit with his first career USHL goal, along with it being the game-winning goal, 5:39 into the period, also giving Jordan Geike his first assist. Barabanov found himself on the statistics sheet as the period came to a close as he assisted on JJ Wiebusch's goal with 1:42 left to play in the second frame. Panzer also found his name on the stat line for Wiebusch's goal.

Cedar Rapids came back with a vengeance in the third, tallying two goals in the first half of the period. With a two-goal deficit, the RoughRiders pulled their goaltender, Sam Scopa, with 3:23 left in the game. This empty net remained vacant until Tyler Borgula tapped the puck in with 57 seconds to play in the game. Borgula's goal earned the newest member of the Herd, Swedish forward Marcus Limpar-Lantz, his first USHL assist.

Caleb Heil's goaltending efforts held the Herd's win throughout the entirety of the game. Giving up just two goals, Heil stopped 18 shots on his net for a .900 save percentage. Adding his first win of the season to his record, Heil's career record as a Stampede netminder sits at 6-2-1 through 10 games after playing 9 games last season.

The Stampede finishes its trip in Pittsburgh on Thursday evening against the Tri-City Storm at 7:30 p.m. Following the trip back to the Midwest, the Herd will head to Urbandale, Iowa on September 30 to take on the Des Moines Buccaneers at Buccaneer Arena.