KEARNEY, Neb. – Cody Milan scored twice and the Tri-City Storm (29-12-6) defeated the Sioux City Musketeers (31-13-5) 5-1 at the Viaero Event Center on Saturday night to earn a sweep of the weekend and take the six-game regular season series between the top teams in the Western Conference, four games to two.

Also scoring in the victory for Tri-City was Matthew Freytag, Nick Master and Conner Valesano, while goaltender Jared Rutledge earned his third win of the season over Sioux City, making 29 saves.

After a scoreless first period, the Storm took the lead at 11:54 of the second on Freytag’s 14th goal of the season. Tri-City captain Garrett Gamez found the Wisconsin commit in front of the Sioux City net and the forward was able to control a bouncing puck and bat it into the far side of the net to make it 1-0.

Less than three minutes later, Milan made it 2-0 with his first strike of the night. Defenseman Mattias Goransson got the puck to the front of the Musketeer net where it hit Dan Labosky’s stick and went right to Milan, who backhanded it home for the 2-0 lead.

Goransson was credited with the second assist on both of the Storm’s second period goals and Tri-City went into the second intermission ahead by two.

A penalty to Sioux City’s Sebastian Repo that came five seconds into the final period put the Storm on the power play and Nick Master capitalized, scoring his 20th goal of the season.

Master has now scored in five consecutive Tri-City home games, and has goals in seven of the last eight played at the Viaero Event Center. Assists on the tally were credited to both Christopher Brown and Bobby Nardella.

The Storm held their 3-0 lead until the final minutes, when Musketeer forward Sam Kurker scored with an extra attacker to get Sioux City on the board.

Rutledge’s shutout bid ended with less than a minute and a half to go in the contest before empty net goals by both Milan and Valesano for Tri-City.

The Storm outshot Sioux City 38-30 in the contest, as Musketeers’ netminder Collin Olson made 33 saves while suffering the loss.

Tri-City is still in second place in the USHL’s Western Conference with 64 points, but the Storm gained three points on Sioux City in the weekend series and is three points back of the top spot in the west.

The Storm will now travel to Fargo for their first meetings with the Force this season. The first meeting is Thursday night, with the series concluding on Friday. Both games will start at 7:05.

Notes: The Storm scratched forwards Nolan Aibel and Kyle Eastman, along with defenseman Jason Krych…

 

SCORING SUMMARY

 

1st Period
(no scoring)

2nd Period

Tri-City – Matthew Freytag (Garrett Gamez, Mattias Goransson) 11:54
Tri-City – Cody Milan (Dan Labosky, Mattias Goransson) 14:31

 

3rd Period
Tri-City – Nick Master (power play) (Christopher Brown, Bobby Nardella) 1:00
Sioux City – Sam Kurker (power play) (extra attacker) (Anthony Walsh, Ryan Zuhlsdorf) 18:35
Tri-City – Cody Milan (empty net) (unassisted) 18:51
Tri-City – Conner Valesano (empty net) (Wade Allison, Jalen Schulz) 19:33

PENALTIES

 

1st Period
Tri-City – Vince Pedrie – (High Sticking), 2 min, 4:06

2nd Period
Sioux City – Jake Durflinger – (Fighting), 5 min, 3:21
Sioux City – Jake Durflinger – (Fighting) (Misconduct), 10 min, 3:21
Tri-City – Jalen Schulz – (Fighting), 5 min, 3:21
Tri-City – Jalen Schulz – (Fighting) (Misconduct), 3:21
Sioux City – Anthony Walsh – (Holding), 2 min, 3:21

3rd Period
Sioux City – Sebastian Repo – (Cross Checking), 2 min, 0:05
Sioux City – Sebastian Repo – (Roughing), 2 min, 11:48
Tri-City – Mason Appleton – (Roughing), 2 min, 11:48
Sioux City – Adam Johnson – (Interference), 2 min, 13:15
Tri-City – Tory Dello – (Cross Checking), 2 min, 17:12
Sioux City – Alex Rodriguez – (Spearing), 5 min, 20:00
Sioux City – Alex Rodriguez – (Spearing) (Game Misconduct), 10 min, 20:00

Power Play

Sioux City – 1/2

Tri-City – 1/3

Shots

Sioux City: 11, 5, 14 = Total: 30
Tri-City: 13, 16, 9 = Total: 38

Saves
Sioux City – Collin Olson – 33/36
Tri-City – Jared Rutledge – 29/30