The Waterloo Black Hawks earned their desired result in all 13 special teams situations on Friday, defeating the Lincoln Stars 5-1 at Young Arena.
Waterloo squelched nine Lincoln power plays in the game. Those Stars opportunities gave the visitors a 37-24 shots on goal edge, but netminder Calvin Vachon made a career-best 36 saves and picked up his fourth consecutive victory. Meanwhile the Hawks' offense was successful on all four advantages they were awarded during the contest.
The home team turned aside Lincoln's first power play, but the Stars scored their lone goal in the next shift, 6:17 into the game. Tyler Wood carried the puck into the offensive zone and put his attempt in off the post to the right of Vachon. Waterloo leveled the score during their first power play later in the period. John Mustard drove a low shot to the net at 11:33. That created the rebound for Grady Deering to push in for his first USHL score.
Waterloo surged to the lead in the second period thanks to a succession of overlapping power plays. The Hawks were skating five-on-three when Connor Brown blasted a shot toward the crease at 5:52. The try was stopped, but Gavin Lindberg was left with an open side to score.
Another five-on-three began less than two minutes later, and the Hawks struck again. A faceoff win allowed Griffin Erdman to move toward the left corner and drop a pass back to Jacob Delaney. There were five seconds left in the two-man advantage when Delaney fired in his first USHL tally.
The Hawks made it four-for-four on the power play at 8:32. Lindberg collected the puck behind the net and dropped it back to Tyler Miller, with the defenseman positioned above the left dot to rifle a shot to the top corner.
Lincoln had three power plays during the remainder of the period, but Vachon made 15 stops during the frame. He turned away another 17 shots in the third, many of them coming during three additional shorthanded situations.
The Stars added a sixth-attacker with just under three minutes remaining and were about to be called for a penalty with 2:15 to go. However, Matthew Frost put the puck into the empty Lincoln net to wash out a potential fifth Hawks power play and seal Waterloo's win.
The Hawks move into the back half of their five-game homestand on Saturday against the Dubuque Fighting Saints. The 6:05 p.m. matchup features the first-ever Black Hawks College Fair, including $10 tickets for all high school students with ID. Families can also take advantage of the Scary Good Deal ticket package for $52 while supplies last, including four tickets and a variety of Halloween goodies. Tickets are available from the Domino's Black Hawks Box Office at (319) 291-7680 or via tickets.waterlooblackhawks.com.
Lincoln 1 0 0 - 1
Waterloo 1 3 1 - 5
1st Period-1, Lincoln, Wood 1 (Weber, Jurcev), 6:17. 2, Waterloo, Deering 1 (Mustard, Erdman), 11:33 (PP). Penalties-Delaney Wat (holding the stick), 3:58; Shaw Lin (tripping), 9:55; Ferkodic Lin (hooking), 13:01; Fascia Wat (diving/embellishment), 13:01; Delaney Wat (head contact), 18:12.
2nd Period-3, Waterloo, Lindberg 2 (Brown, Thoreson), 5:52 (PP). 4, Waterloo, Delaney 1 (Erdman, Deering), 7:29 (PP). 5, Waterloo, Miller 2 (Lindberg, Thoreson), 8:32 (PP). Penalties-Erdman Wat (hooking), 0:54; Young Lin (slashing), 4:21; Peters Lin (hooking), 5:33; Young Lin (hooking), 7:20; Morich Wat (roughing), 9:26; Morich Wat (checking from behind), 12:07; Nycz Wat (hooking), 17:46.
3rd Period-6, Waterloo, Frost 2 (Hilman, Brown), 17:45 (EN). Penalties-Kesselring Lin (roughing), 1:04; Kerr Wat (roughing), 1:04; Delaney Wat (tripping), 5:29; Miller Wat (slashing), 9:43; Janviriya Lin (roughing dbl minor), 16:05; Deering Wat (roughing dbl minor), 16:05; Montgomery Lin (hooking), 17:45; Morich Wat (boarding), 18:33.
Shots on Goal-Lincoln 5-15-17-37. Waterloo 12-6-6-24.
Power Play Opportunities-Lincoln 0 / 9; Waterloo 4 / 4.
Goalies-Lincoln, Shostak 3-3-0-0 (23 shots-19 saves). Waterloo, Vachon 4-1-0-0 (37 shots-36 saves).
A-1,939
