Black Hawks Road Trip To Tri-City

The Waterloo Black Hawks road trip this weekend (January 9-10, 2015) for a pair of games against the Tri-City Storm.

Trekking to Tri-City:
The Black Hawks make their one and only trip to Kearney, Nebraska, this weekend to meet the Tri-City Storm on Friday and Saturday. The two clubs own the United States Hockey League’s top power play units; the Storm are fractionally better at 25.5% compared to the Hawks 25.2%. Both teams made December goaltender acquisitions from the North American Hockey League. Jared Rutledge joined the Storm from the Janesville Jets after prior experience with Team USA and the Green Bay Gamblers. Trevor Gorsuch is a Black Hawk after playing for the Michigan Warriors. He also had an earlier stint in Tri-City during 2011/12. Waterloo and Tri-City will conclude their head-to-head meetings with another two-game weekend; the games at Young Arena are just four weeks distant on February 7th and 8th.

Topping the Charts:
Brock Boeser will attempt to become the first USHL player to record 20 goals in 2014/15 during the coming weekend. Boeser surpassed Jiri Fronk of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders for the league lead Friday when he scored his 19th of the season during a 4-2 loss against the Omaha Lancers. Chris Wilkie of the Tri-City Storm currently ranks third with 18 goals. Boeser has scored seven times since Christmas.

Astounding:
The Omaha Lancers’ 37-28 edge in shots on goal last Friday marked the first time the Hawks had been outshot since October 24th against the Fargo Force. Waterloo followed up Saturday by putting 33 pucks on frame against the Dubuque Fighting Saints, while allowing only 28, during a 4-2 loss. The Black Hawks are now 7-16-2 this season during games in which the have more shots than the opposition. During the entire 2013/14 season, no USHL club lost more than 15 games in regulation when having a favorable shots on goal margin.

Rommel on the Road:
Forward Henrik Rommel continued a recent trend of solid road work when he recorded Waterloo’s first goal on Saturday versus the Dubuque Fighting Saints. During the Hawks’ last six away games, the Swedish 20-year-old has three goals and two assists. Among the dozen points Rommel has recorded as a Black Hawk, four goals and six assists have been tallied away from Young Arena.

Weekly Recap:
The Black Hawks closed the 2014 portion of the schedule last Wednesday by blanking the Lincoln Stars, 5-0. Trevor Gorsuch made 28 saves, while Brock Boeser scored twice. The Omaha Lancers and Dubuque Fighting Saints dealt Waterloo successive 4-2 losses on Friday and Saturday. In those two games, Tom Novak and Hayden Shaw each recorded three points.