Story by Tri-City Storm Commuincation
KEARNEY, NE. – The Tri-City Storm begins its journey in the 2024 Clark Cup Playoffs tonight at the Viaero Center in Game #1 of an opening-round series against the Sioux Falls Stampede. This round of the postseason is a Best-of-Three series, with the higher seed hosting all three games. Game #2 of the series will also be played tomorrow in Kearney, and the Storm will host a third game at the Viaero Center on Wednesday, if necessary. All games in Tri-City’s opening-round of the 2024 Clark Cup Playoffs are scheduled to begin at 7:05pm CT.
Tickets to any game in the series may be purchased online by skating to www.StormHockey.com, or by calling the Viaero Center Box Office during Box Office hours at 308-338-8144. All non-first-row seats are available for only $7 per game. Glass tickets are $15 for Adults, and $12 for Kids. Tickets are complimentary for all Tri-City Storm Season Ticket Holders. Fans who attended the Storm’s Fan Appreciation Night game on Friday, April 12th at the Viaero Center, can bring their ticket to the Viaero Center Box Office and receive free admission to one of the Storm’s opening-round games in the 2024 Clark Cup Playoffs. The winner of this week’s series at the Viaero Center between the Stampede and the Storm will advance to play the Anderson Cup Champion Fargo Force in a Best-Of-Five series in the Conference Semifinal Round of the postseason.
Tri-City (0-0, 4th Seed) embarks on a postseason Clark Cup quest for the final time under 7th-year Head Coach Anthony Noreen. The Storm’s winningest Head Coach in franchise history was announced as the new Head Coach at Miami (OH) (NCAA DI) on Monday, April 1st, 2024. Coach Noreen will continue to guide the Storm until its final game in this year’s edition of the Clark Cup Playoffs. Tri-City never failed to qualify for the playoffs under Coach Noreen, and has twice advanced to the Western Conference Finals round of the postseason. This year’s opening-round series between the Storm and the Stampede is a rematch of the 2019 Western Conference Finals. Sioux Falls completed a three-game sweep over Tri-City in the five-game series, and won eleven of twelve games overall en route to a Clark Cup title.
The Storm finished the 2023-2024 regular season with an overall record of 28-23-4-7, and earned the 4th seed on the Western Conference side of the postseason bracket. It was the thirteenth time in the organization’s twenty-four seasons that Tri-City posted twenty-eight or more wins in a single regular season. This was the sixth time in seven seasons under Coach Noreen that the Storm reached the twenty-eight-win plateau. The pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 season was the only season that Tri-City did not win at least twenty-eight games, and did not participate in a postseason (no playoffs contested), under Coach Noreen. The Storm completed a two-game sweep in the opening-round of the 2023 Clark Cup Playoffs at the Viaero Center over the Sioux City Musketeers before falling to the Fargo Force in the Western Conference Semifinals Round of the postseason.
Tri-City completed the 2023-2024 regular season with a 4-1-1-1 record in seven head-to-head games played against Sioux Falls. The Storm defeated the Stampede in an overtime thriller on the opening weekend of the regular season at the 2023 DICK’S Sporting Goods USHL Fall Classic at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. August Falloon scored each of the Storm’s goals, including the game-winner at 2:26 of the overtime period to give Tri-City a 2-1 victory on September 21st, 2023. Brandt Harper scored the first goal of his USHL career at 4:08 of the 1st period on October 13th, 2023, in a road game for Tri-City at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, and Cameron Korpi recorded a twenty-six save shutout in a 1-0 win for the Storm in another memorable game of the regular season series. The Storm won seven of eight games contested in last year’s series against the Stampede, and Tri-City has produced an overall record of 24-7-2-2 in games played against Sioux Falls over the past five seasons. The Storm has won thirteen of the last eighteen games played against the Stampede at the Viaero Center in Kearney.
Scoring leaders for Tri-City in the sixty-two-game regular season included Trevor Connelly (31), Ryan Smith (24), Cam Briere (22), Artemi Nizameyev (16), August Falloon (16), A.J. Lacroix (15), Jake Rozzi (14), and Owen Beckner (14). August Falloon led the Storm in game-winning goals during the regular season (6). Tri-City’s powerplay finished the regular season at 21.5%, tenth best in the league. Tri-City’s penalty kill completed the regular season at 79.0%, and was top-five in the USHL. The Storm finished the year 18-14-1-5 when outshooting its opponents, and 10-8-3-2 when outshot by the opposition. Tri-City completed the regular season with a record of 10-6-4-7 in one-goal games, and 16-9-1-4 in games played on home ice at the Viaero Center.
Sioux Falls (0-0, 5th Seed) learned its opening-round playoff opponent on Saturday night at the conclusion of the regular season. The Stampede completed the regular season with a final record of 28-28-5-1. Sioux Falls finished the year by winning four of its last ten games played, including a 6-5 shootout decision over Tri-City at the Viaero Center on Friday, April 5th, 2024. Tonight’s game holds special significance for the Stampede, as it is the first playoff game since the organization captured the 2019 Clark Cup Championship on May 17th, 2019, in a 5-1 victory over the Chicago Steel at the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Geneva, Illinois. Tonight’s contest will be the first playoff game played by Sioux Falls in 1,795 days after the team failed to qualify for the last three editions of the Clark Cup Playoffs.
The Stampede posted wins over the Storm on three occasions during the 2023-2024 regular season. Sioux Falls won a 3-2 home decision on October 8th, 2023, a 5-4 overtime decision on home ice on January 30th, 2024, and most recently, a 6-5 shootout decision on April 5th, 2024, at the Viaero Center. The Stampede blasted the Fargo Force in an 8-1 win at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center last Saturday night in the organization’s final game of the regular season. Sioux Falls dropped four of its previous five games entering the matchup. Scoring leaders for the Stampede at the conclusion of the regular season were J.J. Wiebusch (29), Tyler Borgula (22), Chris Pelosi (21), Chase LaPinta (21), Jaksen Panzer (18), John McNelis (18), and Hunter Anderson (16). Sioux Falls’s powerplay finished the year with a conversion rate of 16.0%, fourteenth in the league. The Stampede’s penalty kill was fifteenth in the league, at 72.0%.
Tonight’s playoff game is set to begin at 7:05pm CT, and will be streamed on FloHockey and Storm Radio. Tickets to postseason games at the Viaero Center may be purchased online by skating to www.StormHockey.com, or by calling the Viaero Center Box Office at 308-338-8144. Viaero Wireless is the presenting sponsor of the Tri-City Storm.