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The Fargo Force has put themselves in great position. It would seemingly take a gigantic collapse to miss the playoffs. However, the Force isn’t thinking about getting into the playoffs. They are thinking about winning the West Division. Friday night’s 4-3, come-from-behind win put Fargo tied atop the West with the Omaha Lancers.
It was Omaha that opened the scoring with the lone goal of the first period. Dennis Brown lit the lamp on the power play at the 15:18 mark of the first. Fargo outshot Omaha 12-8 in the period, but could not solve goaltender Jeff Teglia.
The second period was all Force. They were able to solve Teglia three times in the middle frame to take a comfortable two goal lead into the final period. Matt Leitner scored the first goal with assists to Nicholas Romanick and Nick Oliver at 3:03 of the second. Late in the period, Fargo score back-to-back shorthanded goals to jump out to that two goal lead. Garrett Allen scored the first shorthanded goal with an assist to Leitner. Then, 22 seconds later, Nate Condon lit the lamp shorthanded to make it 3-1.
The Lancers wouldn’t go away quietly. Erik Haula scored a power play goal just 1:23 into the second to cut the Force lead to one. At 6:17 of the period, Chase Grant found the back of the net to put Fargo back in front by two. Condon and Thursday night’s hero Corey Leivermann assisted on the goal.
With 2:34 remaining in the third period, Omaha pulled back within one. Colin Markison beat Fargo goaltender Ryan Massa to make the game interesting at 4-3. Massa and the Force were able to hold off the late Lancer attack to win the game by that same 4-3 margin.
Massa kicked out 29 of 32 shots in the win for Fargo. Teglia stopped 31 of 35 shots in a losing effort for Omaha.
The two teams will take the ice again Saturday night for a 7:05 p.m. game for sole possession of first place at the Urban Plains Center in Fargo, N.D.
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