The Omaha Lancers scored three power play goals Saturday evening and netminder Todd Mathews surrendered just one goal against as the Lancers overwhelmed the visiting Youngstown Phantoms 4-1 in front of 3,128 fans at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. With the win, the Lancers improved to 31-18-7 on the year and are now in sole possession of second place in the Western Conference with 69 standings points. Omaha has now won four straight games at home and ten of its last 13 at the Civic Auditorium. Youngstown grabbed the game's opening goal less than five minutes into the tilt when a clean faceoff win by Stuart Higgins in the attacking zone produced a back door opportunity for Quinn Smith who made no mistake in tapping his ninth goal of the season inside the left goal post. The five-on-five tally came 4:24 into period one and marked the 28th time in 54 games this season that the Phantoms have scored the game's first goal. Omaha wasted little time evening the game in the second period as just 1:13 into the middle stanza, Stefan Demopoulos won a battle for a loose puck atop the Youngstown goal crease before driving home his 15th goal of the season. Adam Chlapik and Ben Marshall assisted on the man advantage marker, which was Demopoulos' eighth power play strike of the year. The Lancers then grabbed their first lead of the night when, with a little over six minutes left in the second period and enjoying another power play, Bryce Johnson fed a perfect cross-ice pass to Nick Oddo on the left wing who blasted home his 21st goal of the season. Aaron Ave garnered the secondary assist on the man advantage marker scored 13:36 into the middle period. Omaha then sealed the game with a pair of insurance markers in the game's final five minutes. First, Johnson fed a cross-crease pass to Jonathan Liau 15:53 into the third period for Liau's 11th goal of the season. Matt Tabrum earned the only assist on Omaha's only five-on-five goal of the evening. The Lancers then landed the final nail in the coffin with just 18 seconds left in regulation when Seth Ambroz dished a pass off to the right wing, which was launched into the back of the Youngstown net by Ben Marshall for his 11th goal of the season and Omaha's third power play strike of the game. Omaha's Todd Mathews earned the victory in goal after 23 saves on 24 Phantoms shots. With the win, Mathews improved to 16-8-4 on the year. Meanwhile, Youngstown's Jordan Tibbett suffered the loss despite 28 saves on 32 Lancers shots on goal. The Lancers are back in action next Friday evening when they face off against the Chicago Steel in the team's final regular season game at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.
