Black Hawks Outshine Stars in Lincoln

The Waterloo Black Hawks scored two power play goals to help defeat the Lincoln Stars at Young Arena on Friday, December 29, 2017.

Solag Bakich broke a 2-2 tie, knocking in a close range opportunity, low to the stick side of goalie Tomas Vomacka at 8:12. Back to the power play again during a subsequent shift, Jack Drury came out of the right corner to redirect a Hank Sorensen blast at 9:16.

The two-goal margin stood until Dominick Mersch flipped in his own rebound with 2:57 to play. Less than a minute later, the Stars thought they had tied the score, but a review confirmed the call on the ice that the puck had been batted into the Waterloo net by a Star players’ glove.

In the first period, both teams had recorded a goal in the opening five minutes of action. Ethan Johnson struck at 3:20, capitalizing on a close-range transition opportunity created by Ian Malcolmson and Evan Dougherty. Lincoln answered just 1:37 later when an errant shot caromed to Wyatt Aamodt; the defenseman was in a shooting position and found the net from below the dot in the right circle.

The teams exchanged goals again in the second period. Waterloo retook the lead at 12:03 when Bakich found the disc behind the Lincoln net and centered for Ben Copeland, who scored into an open side. That lead lasted a little more than three minutes until 15:07 when Devlin McCabe retied the matchup during a power play. McCabe’s goal from a sharp angle at the bottom of the left circle resulted from Lincoln puck movement around the perimeter.

Waterloo concludes the calendar year Sunday versus the Des Moines Buccaneers for a 6:05 p.m. New Year’s Eve home game. For tickets, call the Black Hawks Box Office or visit waterlooblackhawks.com.

Contributed By: Tim Harwood (Waterloo Black Hawks Media Relations)