SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Sioux Falls Stampede rallied in the third period to top the first place Waterloo Black Hawks 3-2 in overtime at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center Friday night. Jared Westcott scored both regulation goals and Brenden Olson capped off the night with the overtime tally. Head Coach Scott Owens recorded his 400th career regular season win on the bench. Jaxson Stauber made the start in net, stopping 41 of 43 shots.
The Waterloo Black Hawks came to the PREMIER Center with the best record in the league and top of the standings, returning nearly half the team that last visited during the Clark Cup playoffs last season. The Herd only returned four. One of those four is Imperial, Missouri, native Jared Westcott who opened scoring with a goal at the 15:54 mark of the first period. Defenseman Evan Nause intercepted a pass in the neutral and found Westcott streaking into goaltender Gabriel Carriere in the slot.
The Black Hawks evened the game one all with a goal from Wyatt Schingoethe, his twelfth of the season, 16:07 into the second period. Waterloo outshot the Herd 18-8 in the period.
Schingoethe scored again 3:52 into the third period by putting a puck that ricocheted off the back wall in front of Jaxson Stauber for the Johnny-on-the-spot goal. Forward Cam MacDonald was able to send a pass up to Westcott who was able to tie the game up with eight minutes remaining in regulation.
Brenden Olson scored the game-winning goal by racing around two defensemen and beating Carriere across his facemask.
The Herd improves to 16-16-3 on the season, going 7-3 in their last 10 games.
The Stampede return back to the PREMIER Center to finish off the weekend series with the Waterloo Black Hawks with a 7:05 p.m. puck drop. The Herd will be celebrating Special Olympics night presented by Modern Woodmen of America. Fans can take part in a silent auction on the main concourse of sports memorabilia to benefit Special Olympics South Dakota. Fans can catch the game streaming live at HockeyTV.com or listen live on KELO Radio 107.9 FM, 1320 AM or Kelo.com.
(Jasen Robbennolt contributed to this report)
