READY, SET, GO! The 2026-27 USHL Season Kicks Off at the Fall Classic in Chicago

Des Moines made the most of its two days in Chicago. After beating Muskegon 4-1 in Wednesday's season opener, the Buccaneers returned Thursday and scored seven against Youngstown, leaving the Fall Classic with four points and an 11-4 scoring advantage. Mason Jenson's second-period hat trick and Joey Argentina's four-point afternoon turned what could have been a serviceable start into something more significant: a two-game sweep that announced Des Moines as a team worth watching.

Across the first six games, the opening schedule offered a wider story than one team's fast start. Sioux City's Dominik Bednar delivered a hat trick, Cedar Rapids' Joseph Skidmore recorded a shutout, Muskegon recovered from its opening loss with an overtime win, and Dubuque held off a late Lincoln push. This account covers Wednesday's three games and Thursday's three afternoon games, ending with the Dubuque-Lincoln matchup that concluded the afternoon schedule.

The September 16-20 event is being held at Blackhawks Ice Center presented by Fifth Third Bank for the first time, with most games at USG Arena, the Chicago Steel's new home. Each team plays two regular-season games during the gathering, which means the margin between catastrophe and encouragement is razor-thin. There's little time to dwell on an opener, whether it provides confidence or exposes work that still needs attention.

Des Moines' 4-1 victory over Muskegon was closer for much of the afternoon than the final score suggests. The Buccaneers were protecting a one-goal lead late in the third period when Joey Argentina scored shorthanded, giving them the breathing room needed to close out the season's first game. That moment, that shorthanded goal when Muskegon still had legitimate hope, separated a close result from a convincing one.

Jon Kavcic made 32 saves, including all 12 shots he faced in the first period, a period that told you something important about Des Moines' identity: they have the goaltending to weather a storm. Muskegon doubled Des Moines' first-period shot total but went to the dressing room trailing after Jakub Dubravik opened the scoring late in the frame. Becker Wenkus made it 2-0 at 4:03 of the second, and the Buccaneers carried that advantage into the third.

Muskegon cut the deficit to 2-1 early in the final period, leaving plenty of time to recover. But Argentina's goal at 15:28 changed the math entirely, turning a Muskegon power-play opportunity into a two-goal Des Moines lead. Mason Jenson added an empty-net goal in the final moments while Argentina and Riley Zupfer each finished with two points. For Des Moines, the encouraging part wasn't just that they won, but how they finished: the Buccaneers had the goaltending to keep their lead intact and made a decisive play when Muskegon still had a chance to draw even. The Lumberjacks put 33 shots on goal, but their late power play became the moment the game moved further out of reach.

Dominik Bednar supplied the day's biggest scoring performance with a natural hat trick in Sioux City's 8-3 victory over Green Bay. After Brock Stevenson opened the scoring, Bednar scored the next three goals to send the Musketeers into the third period ahead 4-0. That's not a situation teams ordinarily recover from, and Green Bay didn't, though they wouldn't go quietly.

Green Bay got on the board early in the third to make it 4-1, but two Juho Kuisma goals stretched Sioux City's advantage to 6-1. The Gamblers scored twice more before Daniil Butin and Stevenson completed the scoring, giving Sioux City three players with multiple goals and leaving no question about where the offensive depth was located. Stevenson finished with two goals, Kuisma with two as well. Special teams helped create that separation: Sioux City scored three power-play goals, two from Bednar and one from Stevenson.

That combination of Bednar's aggressive run early and the offense continuing to produce after Green Bay finally scored made the opener particularly encouraging for the Musketeers. For the Gamblers, three third-period goals showed they have some ability to respond, but allowing four before answering left them chasing a game Sioux City never let them recover from. It's a difficult dynamic to overcome in a two-game showcase.

Joseph Skidmore stopped all 19 Fargo shots as Cedar Rapids closed Wednesday's schedule with a 3-0 victory. David Bosco, Henry Lechner and Noel Öhgren scored, while Carter Ernst contributed two assists. The RoughRiders finished with a 30-19 shot advantage, but the period-by-period breakdown tells a more useful story about how the game actually played out.

Fargo had 10 shots in the first period but only nine over the final two combined. Cedar Rapids scored once in the second and twice in the third, with Öhgren's goal going into an empty net as the game essentially ended. Cedar Rapids limited Fargo to four shots in the second period and five in the third, reducing Skidmore's workload significantly. Skidmore earned the shutout, but that shutout came from a team that understood how to play defense in front of its goaltender, not just a goaltender standing on his head. For Fargo, the immediate concern heading into the rest of their schedule is generating more consistent offensive pressure. The opening period showed they have some capacity for it, but not sustaining that through 40 minutes is a problem worth correcting before the next showcase. 

Des Moines followed its opening win with a 7-3 victory over Youngstown, and this game showcased a different dimension entirely: the ability to explode offensively in a single period. The Buccaneers scored five times in the second period, and Jenson accounted for three of those goals. He converted on the power play at 4:28, then added two more at 8:09 and 11:53 in quick succession. Argentina assisted on all three and then scored shorthanded at 19:18, giving him a goal and three assists for the afternoon alone.

The Buccaneers led 2-0 after the first period, but Youngstown cut the deficit to 2-1 and later 4-2 in the second. Each time Des Moines answered immediately. Jakub Dubravik restored a two-goal lead just 75 seconds after Youngstown made it 2-1, and Jenson scored his second only 62 seconds after the Phantoms pulled within 4-2. By the second intermission, the advantage was 7-2, a swing that essentially ended the game as a competition.

Shots finished even at 23, making the difference in finishing particularly striking. Zupfer added two assists, and Argentina scored shorthanded for the second consecutive game. Des Moines' two wins came with different goaltenders in net, with Kavcic making 32 saves Wednesday and the Buccaneers getting 20 saves Thursday. What matters is that both performances held up when it counted.

Youngstown had moments that could have brought the game back within reach, but the team couldn't sustain them or take advantage when Des Moines gave them a chance. The Buccaneers' response after each second-period goal was the strongest part of Thursday's performance: they kept extending their lead instead of giving the Phantoms time to settle into a comeback.

Muskegon left Chicago with a split after Zaac Charbonneau scored a power-play goal 1:53 into overtime to beat Waterloo 3-2. The Lumberjacks had trailed twice before Billy MacAusland tied the game at 6:28 of the third period. After conceding a costly shorthanded goal in its opener, Muskegon found the special-teams finish it needed Thursday.

Cody Sokol put Waterloo ahead in the first, and Strider Carhart answered early in the second. The Black Hawks regained the lead later in that period and carried it into the third, but couldn't protect it through regulation. A hooking penalty 1:27 into overtime gave Muskegon its opportunity, and Charbonneau ended the game 26 seconds later with assists from Färhammar and Nicholas Kosiba. Charbonneau also assisted on Carhart's goal, finishing with two points. Samuel Doyon-Cataquiz stopped 22 shots for Muskegon as both teams finished with 24 shots on goal.

Waterloo went 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Lumberjacks converted one of three chances. Earning a point in a loss is something, but two leads and four unsuccessful power plays left clear opportunities to consider before the next game.

Dubuque's 6-3 win over Lincoln began with a setback just 17 seconds into the game, when Casey Vandertop scored for the Stars. The Fighting Saints answered with four consecutive goals, including two from Kane Johnson, and took a 4-1 lead into the third period. That's a comfortable margin, or it seemed to be until the third period arrived.

Lincoln made that advantage genuinely uncomfortable. Two power-play goals during a major boarding penalty against Kris Richards brought the Stars within 4-3, with the second arriving at 12:41. Dubuque held that one-goal lead until Travis Lefere scored into an empty net at 18:25. Max Lind added another goal 14 seconds later. Lefere finished with a goal and two assists, while Luke Carrithers stopped 20 shots. Dubuque outshot Lincoln 35-23, including 15-5 in the second period, when the Saints doubled their goal total from two to four.

The Saints recovered well from that opening goal and ultimately protected their lead, but the third period supplied a lesson alongside the win. Lincoln's power play turned a three-goal deficit into a one-goal game by the penalty's end, forcing Dubuque to finish under considerably more pressure than it had faced at the second intermission. That's the kind of momentum swing that matters.

Des Moines supplied the most complete two-game result within this opening stretch. Its sweep included strong goaltending in the opener, a second-period scoring burst against Youngstown that ended any remaining doubt, and a shorthanded goal in each game that came at precisely the right moments. Jenson finished with four goals across the two games, Argentina with six points and Zupfer with four assists. Those are substantial opening contributions, even with a long season still ahead.

The other results show why the margins alone don't tell the complete story. Muskegon was one goal behind Des Moines late in its opener, then recovered twice against Waterloo before winning in overtime. Dubuque won by three but was protecting a one-goal lead inside the final two minutes. Sioux City's scoring and Cedar Rapids' shutout offered different reasons for encouragement, while Green Bay, Fargo, Youngstown, Waterloo and Lincoln each came away from these games with specific areas to address.

There is not enough hockey here to settle the season's expectations. There is enough to identify what worked: timely saves, productive special teams and the ability to answer when an opponent threatened to turn a game. As the Fall Classic continues through Sunday, the next results will show which teams can repeat those performances and which can respond effectively when things don't go according to plan.