OMAHA, NE - The Dubuque Fighting Saints' (6-1-1-1, 14 pts) offense led the way to an 8-5 victory on Friday night against the Omaha Lancers (0-7-0-0, 0 pts).
Chase LaPinta carried the load for Dubuque in Friday's win, logging a career-high five points on two goals and three assists. His five points tied Stephen Halliday's modern franchise record for points in a game. Halliday did so on April 15, 2022 against Green Bay.
The Saints fell behind 1-0 just 1:25 into the game, but on a power play shortly after, LaPinta found Erik Påhlsson on a cross-ice feed to level the score. Through the rest of the first, the two teams traded a pair of goals. Teddy Merrill scored his second before Juraj Pekarcik buried a rebound late in the period for his third of the season.
"A very good road win to start the weekend," said head coach Kirk MacDonald. "We did a great job managing pucks tonight and playing around Omaha's net and we were rewarded offensively for the effort."
Then, just about halfway through the second, LaPinta set the Saints up again. He took a shot that deflected and landed right on Gavin Cornforth's stick and the forward netted the go-ahead goal to give Dubuque a 4-3 lead.
After a tying goal from Omaha, LaPinta created offense again for Dubuque. For a second time, his shot was stopped, but Erik Påhlsson found the rebound and gave the Saints a lead they would never relinquish.
Just over a minute after that, LaPinta finally had a shot beat a Lancers' netminder for his third of the season and the Saints went into the final period up by two.
Following an early third-period goal for Omaha, Charlie Arend put Dubuque back up by two with his third of the season. To wrap things up, LaPinta added his second with 5:48 left to cap his historic night.
Thatcher Bernstein improved to 3-0 in the Saints' crease with 18 saves. Dubuque continued to score on the power play with two more goals on the man-advantage.
The Fighting Saints are back in action on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. CST when they finish their road-weekend against the Tri-City Storm.
