It hasn't been easy generating goals against the Lincoln Stars goalie Kevin Murdock this season. However, the Tri-City Storm finally were able to get a late third period goal from Cole Gunner Tuesday night to break Murdock's 236 minutes and five seconds of consecutive shutout goaltending against the Storm. Nonetheless, Tri-City (19-22-10, 48 pts - 8th in Western Conference) wasn't able to overcome three goals by the Stars in the first 29-minutes of the game and loss 4-1, as Stars forward Andrew Schmit added an empty-net goal with 1:29 left in regulation. Lincoln (26-20-5, 57 pts - 5th in Western Conference) scored less than two minutes into the game on Teemu Tiitinen's sixth goal of the season from Austin Hervey and Rasmus Juell. Ryan Dzingle would increase the Lincoln lead at the 7:17 mark in the second period on a goal from the right-side of the Storm net for his 20th of the season. Two minutes and 45 seconds later, Tiitinen and Dzingle would assist on a short-handed goal scored by the defenseman Chris Casto to give the Stars a 3-0 lead through two periods. Gunner's 10th goal of the season would officially come two seconds after the Storm's fifth power play of the game. Rick Pinkston and Nick Lappin would get credited with the assists on the lone-goal scored by the Storm. With the assist, Lappin increased his point-and-assist streak to six games were he has accumulated 10 points in that span, which is a team-high this season. Also, Gunner increased his goal streak to three games and point streak to five games with his seventh point since debuting with Tri-City. Storm goalie Scott Diebold (10-12-3) made 23 saves on 26 shots in the loss, while Murdock (23-14-4) made 25 saves on 26 shots picking up the win for Lincoln. Tri-City went 0-for-6 on the power play, while going 1-for-1 on the penalty kill in their third-straight regulation loss. The Storm play the Fargo Force in back-to-back game this weekend, which starts on Friday night in Fargo, North Dakota. Tri-City returns home Friday, March 26th to host Sioux City. Notes: It was defenseman Rick Pinkston's first game back after missing five-straight games due to injury... The Storm were still without defensemen Dan Kolomatis and Michael Montrose, who are both expected to return in the coming weeks... D Zack Rall is out for the season after getting injured in the loss on Saturday night at Cedar Rapids... Kenny Brooks was moved to defense for the fourth straight game due to injuries... Lincoln officially shutout the Storm for 256 minutes and five seconds, goalie Lukas Hafner replaced Murdock for 20 minutes on Oct. 22 @ Lincoln (Storm won 4-3)
