FARGO-If Friday's matchup with Tri-City was a measuring stick for the Fargo Force as to where they sit with the best of the United States Hockey League's Western Conference, the Force came up a few inches short. The second-place Storm ended the Force's three-game win streak with a 5-4 victory at Scheels Arena.
"They came on the road and beat us," Force coach Cary Eades said. "We need to play better. We need to have better performances up and down our lineup. I thought they played a real good road game. We dug ourselves a pretty big hole."
Force (16-17-2) goaltender Ryan Wischow entered Friday having given up one goal on 84 shots in the previous three games for the Force. Tri-City (17-11-5) ended the night for Wischow early, scoring three goals on their first 11 shots.
"They had power-play execution. They had three tonight," Eades said. "They're execution level was better than ours."
It took Tri-City nearly three minutes to get its first shot on goal, but Nico Sturm made it count, with a goal on a wraparound just 19 seconds into a power play to open the scoring.
ADVERTISEMENT
Monte Graham and Carson Meyer drove to the net on a 2-on-1 early in the second. Graham was stopped by Wischow, but Meyer corralled the rebound and fired back to the slot from behind the goal and Graham found the back of the net on his second try to make it 2-0. Meyer's wrister on a 5-on-3 advantage two minutes later made it 3-0 and ended the night for Wischow less than seven minutes into the second.
"We're right there," Force right winger Grant Meyer said. "If we get contributions from everybody, we're right there. It's just a couple points. The league is so close. That was a big loss tonight, but if we can just string some wins together, we'll be right there."
Grant Meyer scored on a penalty shot less than a minute after Tri-City made it 3-0 to get the Force on the scoreboard. He struck again with 10.1 seconds left in the second with a power-play goal to cut the Tri-City lead to 3-2.
"They just have really top-skilled guys, and we just weren't able to shut them down tonight," Grant Meyer said. "We battled hard. We just had a little three-minute lapse in the third. If we don't have that we win the game."
Caron Meyer's redirect midway through the third put Tri-City (17-11-5) up 4-2 and Alex Limoges' backhander 70 seconds later made it 5-2.
The Force pulled their goalie with 2 minutes, 53 seconds to go. Hank Crone scored on a slapshot with 48.1 seconds remaining and Charlie Gerard scored on a backhander with 13.8 seconds to go, but it was too little too late for the Force (16-17-2).
"We didn't quit," Eades said. "There's no quit in the locker room, but we're not into moral victories."
The Force are yet to win four games in a row this season, as Friday was the third time the Force couldn't push a win streak of three to four.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We haven't lost more than three in a row either, so we've been consistently inconsistent," Eades said. "It's a troubling trait. Three steps forward, three steps back doesn't advance you in the standings."
FIRST PERIOD: 1, TC, Sturm (Goransson, Kielly), 2:45, pp.
SECOND PERIOD: 2, TC, Graham (Meyer, Goransson), 4:08. 3, TC, Meyer (Marino, Wahlin), 6:50, pp. 4, F, Meyer, 7:39, penalty shot. 5, F, Meyer (Lizotte, Crone), 19:50, pp.
THIRD PERIOD: 6, TC, Meyer (Goransson, Marino), 8:29, pp. 7, TC, Limoges, 9:39. 8, F, Crone, 19:12, extra attacker. 9, F, Gerard (Smirnov), 19:47, extra attacker.
SAVES: TC, Kielly 15-12-9-36. F, Wischow 5-3-x-8, Beydoun x-9-8-17
A: 4,090
