A dominant start turned near disastrous Monday at the Ice Box before Doug Grimes and the Lincoln Stars had something to say about it.
The Stars defeated Des Moines 5-2 in Game 1 of the best-of-three opening series of the USHL Western Conference Clark Cup Playoffs.
Lincoln is making its 19th playoff appearance and its third meeting against Des Moines in the Clark Cup Playoffs. The Bucs defeated Lincoln in the semifinals in both the 1998 and '99 seasons.
A 4-0 Lincoln lead was quickly cut to 4-2 after Des Moines scored 18 seconds into the third period on a power-play goal from Michael Bevilacqua and a goal on the penalty shot from Jak Vaarwerk nearly four minutes later to shift momentum to the Buccaneers side.
But like he has done all season, Grimes, who scored 24 goals in the regular season, answered the call with his first goal of the playoffs and more importantly shut down the Des Moines' push.
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“The whole year it is games where it is tough, where it is physical, but not every game,” Grimes said. “In the playoffs, it is every single game. Every night you are going out ready to battle ready for war. It's kind of what I love. I love playing hard and love playing hard for the boys. I really think it comes out in the playoffs.”
A 19-2 shot advantage and a 2-0 lead behind goals from Jack Larrigan and Cole Crusberg-Roseen had Lincoln feeling comfortable after a dominant first 20 minutes.
“We played really well in the first period,” Lincoln head coach Rocky Russo said. “Obviously the shots were 19-2 and kind of got them on their heels. We get an early goal there by Larri (Jack Larrigan) and then we pop the second one and we are feeling pretty good going into the first intermission.”
Lincoln's lead swelled to 4-0 after Lincoln's regular-season leading goal scorer Tanner Ludtke tallied his first of the playoffs after 34 goals in the regular season to make it 3-0. Patrick Raftery netted his first career goal in the playoffs and the eventual game-winner to give the Stars a four-goal lead.
Raftery was part of Lincoln's playoff team in 2021-22, where the Stars won the opening game against Waterloo before dropping the next two.
Lincoln went 4-1-1 against the Bucs in the regular season with five of the six contests decided by two goals or less and three games decided by one goal.
“The second we leave the rink, forget about (Monday's win),” Raftery said. “We can celebrate it for now, but once we get in our cars, it's over. We have to focus on Game 2 and act like it's a 0-0 series again.”
The Stars and Bucs meet again Tuesday at the Ice Box with Lincoln having a chance to close out the series with a victory.