by Bryce Griffin–The Sioux City Musketeers are approaching their final stretch of the 2022 season. The Musketeers currently sit in third place in the USHL’s western conference in a tight battle with the Omaha Lancers and Lincoln Stars.
In each game the Musketeers have the potential to go up to second and get a first-round bye, or drop to fourth and host a playoff first round. The Musketeers currently sit with a record of 25-14-3-1 with 54 total point and are 6-4 in their last 10 games.
The Musketeers have a roster full of talent this year, with every player on the roster committed to play division I collegian hockey.
The leaders of the team start with the returners from last season’s western conference finals team: team captain Kirklan Irey, Griffin Ludtke, Nick Pierre, Bennett Schimek, Tabor Heaslip, Ben Steeves, Ben Doran, and last year’s backup and current starting goalie Alex Tracy.
The returners in a league as complicated as the USHL are important, and players usually move on to the next leave after one or two seasons of play. These players all have experience in the playoffs. In preseason when interviews these players believed anything short of a Clark Cup this year would be disappointing.
A notable recent performance was by returner Ben Steeves. The second-year player leads the team in goals with 24. Steeves scored four goals in one game against Fargo last weekend and wrapped up a three-game weekend with five goals and one assist.
The Musketeers may have lost current New Jersey Devils Goalie Akira Schmid and leading scorer Chase Bradley, but the new impact players hit the ground running. The newbies start with but are not limited to: Owen McLaughin, a North Dakota hockey commit and Philadelphia Flyers draftee; and Charlie Schoen the Arizona State Sun Devils commit. These those two players are in the top 20 scorers in the league in their first full seasons.
Head Coach Luke Strand said Owen will wait for players to try and take the puck from him and show off his puck handling skills. And Schoen is almost guaranteed to score anytime he sees the net.
Those two players are joined by the USHL’s second-leading scoring rookie Dylan James, and are known already around the league as one of the most dangerous lines in the league.
But here’s the kicker: even though all of these players have made an impact, they are not limited to lines with each other, and the team as a whole can score. Every player has potential to score from anywhere on the ice, which makes the Musketeers a difficult team to play against.
The team only has 10 remaining home games and will attempt to make an extended stay in the USHL playoffs and make a run for the Clark Cup.
You can catch the Musketeers in action for two of those 10 home games coming this weekend when they face off against the Omaha Lancers and welcome back the 2002 Clark Cup Championship team at 6:05 on Saturday night and Sunday when the team takes on the Fargo Force at 3:05 P.M.
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