FARGO, ND – The Fargo Force had an impressive showing in their trio of preseason games at the Liberty First Credit Union Arena this weekend. Starting off strong on Friday night with a 4-2 victory over the Waterloo BlackHawks followed by a 6-3 victory over the Omaha Lancers on Saturday. Sunday afternoon the Force were delt their first loss of the preseason by the Tri-City Storm thanks to a goal in the last minute of the game by the Storm to win it 3-2.
The scoring in Friday night's victory started early with a goal from Force returner, Zam Plante 3:59 into the opening frame. Zam was assisted on his first goal of the preseason by Michael LaStarza and Camden Shasby. The BlackHawks tied things up just over 4 minutes later with a goal from Zach Bade.
The BlackHawks took their first lead of the game 3:10 into the second period thanks to a goal from John Mustard, but the lead didn't last long as Force veteran Mac Swanson found the back of the net, his first preseason goal was assisted by Tate Taylor and Iiro Haakarainen.
All square at 2-2 heading into the final frame Zam Plante added his second goal of the night midway through the third. With :30 seconds left to play Iiro Hakkarainen put the nail in the coffin with an empty net shorthanded goal assisted by Tom Leppa and Michael Quinn, giving the Force their first win of the preseason.
Saturday Night's matchup vs. the Omaha Lancers kicked off with a goal from Michael LaStarza assisted by Tom Leppa and Reid Raavettila. Denver commit, Jake Fisher followed that up with a goal of his own just over 6 minutes later giving the force a 2-0 lead with 8 minutes left to play in the opening period. The Lancers found the back of the net with a powerplay goal at 19:17 and the teams headed to intermission with the score at 2-1.
Mac Swanson added his second goal of the weekend :28 seconds into the 2nd period of assists from Lee Parks & Jake Fisher. 3 minutes later fisher added his second goal, and 3rd point of the night putting the Force up by a score of 4-1. At 6:14 Force defenseman Nick Wolfenberg added a 5th goal for Fargo giving them their biggest lead of the game.
The Lancers tallied twice later in the period bringing the score to 5-3 heading into the third.
The third period was back and forth for the majority until Michael LaStarza broke the stalemate with just under 3 minutes left to play securing the 6-3 win for the Force.
The scoring in Sunday's noon contest got off to a slow start, but it was Tri-City who got on the board first midway through the second period. The Storm added a second goal at 16:09 in the second period extending their lead to 2-0. Force forward Gavin Kor got the Force on the board late in the second, Kor's tally came right after a Force powerplay and was assisted by Garrett Drotts and Masun Fleece. Kor added his second of the game at 13:10 in the third period, tying
the game up at 2-2. With :28 seconds left to play Tri-City forward Carmelo Crandell added his first goal of the preseason and secured the 3-2 win for the Storm.
Force goaltenders Anton Castro, Hampton Slukynsky and Eric Olsson each played the equivalent of 1 game throughout the 3 game weekend. Castro played 29:27 on Friday night stopping 7/7 after entering the game midway through the second period. He started in net on Saturday playing another 29:19 and spotting 6/7. Slukynsky played a total of 61 minutes stopping 18/22 and Olsson played 60 minutes stopping 28/31 for a .903SV% on the weekend.
The Force are back at home for a preseason game vs. the Sioux Falls Stampede on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 6:00PM, tickets are free and the game is open to the public!
