PITTSBURGH, PENN.— The Sioux Falls Stampede and Tri-City Storm fought hard through a full 62 minutes of play in their final game of the USHL Fall Classic in Pittsburgh, Penn. Thursday night. The Herd was unable to pull away with the overtime win, falling 2-1 to the Storm, but earning point in USHL play.
With a scoreless first period, the only section of the scoreboard that saw changes was the penalty markers. The Stampede had an early opportunity on a double-minor powerplay caused by Tri-City's August Falloon being called for high sticking.
Kazimier Sobieski answered back just over five minutes into the period with his own interference minor. One more penalty for each team finished out the action for the first period.
After over 38 minutes of neither team scoring, the Stampede's powerplay unit took it into their own hands to get the team on the board. The team spent time moving the puck around between
Chris Pelosi,
Kazimier Sobieski, and
Will McDonough before Pelosi found the shot and took it, scoring the first goal of the night. Goaltender
Michael Chambre saw an uptick in shots on his net from the first to second period, going from two shots to 14, and stopping each one.
The Stampede thought they had the win in their hands until the Storm found the back of Chambre's net with under five minutes to play, tying the game at one each. The battle continued as the last few minutes ticked off the board, with neither team able to pull ahead.
Jaksen Panzer,
Kazimier Sobieski, and
JJ Wiebusch found themselves on the ice at the start of the overtime three-on-three period. A quick moving Herd almost ended the overtime as quickly as it started but Tri-City's Cameron Korpi was able to, somehow, get a piece of the puck to stop it. The battle continued all the way until Tri-City was able to sneak the puck past Chambre with 2:34 left to play in the overtime period, finalizing the score at 2-1 in favor of the Storm.
In his first start as a part of the Herd,
Michael Chambre found himself saving 23 of 25 shots on his net, marking a 1.92 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. The former Team USA NTDP netminder now has a career junior hockey record of 7-12-1 in his three years of USHL hockey.
The Herd now looks to head to Urbandale, Iowa on September 30 for a singular matchup against the Des Moines Buccaneers. Following their weekend in Iowa, the team will come back to Sioux Falls to kick off the home schedule on October 7 against the Waterloo Black Hawks. The Herd's Home Opener has a packed schedule of events leading up to the start of the 25
th Anniversary home season. Included in this schedule are the retirement of Stampede legend Thomas Vanek's jersey, a giveaway for the first 1,000 kids, a special introduction of the 2023-24 team, and much more. Tickets for the Home Opener are available through the Stampede office, KELOLAND box office, or Ticketmaster.
