Saturday's box score

KEARNEY, Neb. – Mason Jenson's game-winning goal with three seconds remaining in overtime handed the Tri-City Storm a 3-2 win over the Lincoln Stars in each team's final game of the regular season on Saturday night at Viaero Center. 

In the waning moments of the extra frame, Tri-City's Rylan Bonkowski drove to the right circle of the Lincoln zone, then sent a pass toward Stars netminder William Prowse. The puck deflected off Prowse's right pad and hopped toward Jenson, who finished the play on the backdoor. 

Tri-City (29-29-4, 62 pts.) ended the regular season at or above the .500 mark for the eighth consecutive year. Lincoln (44-15-3, 91 pts.) snapped a league-best four-game winning streak. 

The Stars' Brady Cunningham opened the scoring with his first career USHL goal 8:30 into the first period. The Bowling Green commit received a Bruno Idzan feed in the left circle of Tri-City's zone, then ripped a hard snapshot past the glove side of Storm netminder Kyle Jones. Saturday was Cunningham's 11th career USHL game. 

The Stars doubled their advantage early in the second. As Lincoln possessed in its offensive end, a Griffin Sturm left point shot bounced off the back side of Tri-City's Colton Whitfield. The puck ricocheted directly to the stick of Lincoln's Kade Kohanski, who swiftly sent a netfront shot past Jones for his eighth marker of the year and first since March 7. 

The Storm produced the next three goals en route to victory. 

Late in the middle frame, Tri-City's Nolan Roed cut off Cunningham as he emerged with the puck from behind his own net. Roed quickly fed a nearby Cooper Simpson, who blasted a quick shot past the glove side of Lincoln netminder William Prowse for his seventh goal in nine appearances this season. 

The tally extended Simpson's goal streak to a career-high five games. The North Dakota commit also grew his point streak to eight contests, the longest by a Storm player in 2024-2025. 

Bonkowski evened the contest with just under four minutes left in the third. In the midst of a Storm offensive zone possession, the Minnesota State commit danced around incoming Stars defender Michael Sandruck, then walked to an open left circle. Bonkowski fired an impressive, highly accurate shot to a vacant top right corner of the Stars net for his seventh goal of the campaign. 

The Storm outshot the Stars 3-1 in the extra frame. Saturday was the Tri-City's sixth overtime victory of the season. Jenson's game-winning tally was his first career game-winning goal. 

Jones stopped 27 of 29 shots in his third win of the season. Prowse halted 38 of 41 Tri-City attempts. It was the Vail, Colorado native's first appearance since March 22. 

Up next: No. 6 Tri-City heads to No. 3 Waterloo for the first round of the USHL Western Conference Playoffs. The best-of-three series begins Monday at 6:35 pm CT. 

Each game of the set will be broadcast on FloHockey and Storm Radio. 

• Game One: Monday, April 14 at Waterloo (6:35 pm CT)

• Game Two: Tuesday, April 15 at Waterloo (6:35 pm CT)

• Game Three (if necessary): Wednesday, April 16 at Waterloo (6:35 pm CT)

Home playoff tickets: Tickets for potential second round Tri-City home playoff games will go on sale at 10:00 am CT on Friday, April 18. Second round playoff dates are to be determined. Playoff tickets will be available at stormhockey.com, by calling 308-338-8144, or stopping by the Viaero Center box office in-person.