Two Colorado natives and Lincoln Stars teammates have earned weekly honors from the USHL.

Aidan Thompson (Fort Collins) is the USHL Forward of the Week while Kaidan Mbereko (Aspen) has been named the USHL Goaltender of the Week.

Thompson earned his second Forward of the Week honor and third of his career after picking up six points (3-3-6) as his Stars swept a home-and-home weekend series.

The University of Denver commit opened the weekend with a two-goal, one-assist game against the Omaha Lancers. Thompson tallied Lincoln’s third and fifth goals of the game, with the latter coming with the man advantage, before assisting on another Lincoln goal in the third period of an 8-1 win. The following night, Thompson scored a third goal on the weekend to open the game’s scoring before adding assists in the first and second periods of a 7-3 win.

With his six points, Thompson is currently on a three-game point streak (3-4-7) and has registered at least a point in 12 of his last 13 games (9-21-30) and is a plus-17 in that span. Thompson’s back-to-back three-point games marked the 14th and 15th times this season that Thompson has registered multiple points in back-to-back appearances as the Lincoln leading scorer has 77 points (23-54-77) in 53 games this season. His 77 points is third in league scoring while his 54 assists ranks second.

In his USHL career, Thompson is just under a point-per-game player with 111 career points (33-78-111) in 113 games with Lincoln. Thompson currently leads the USHL in shorthanded points (9) and assists (5) while his four goals is the second-best total in the league this season.

During his youth hockey days, Thompson played for the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders and Colorado Thunderbirds.

Mbereko’s third Goaltender of the Week award came after backstopping Lincoln to Friday night’s 8-1 win over the Lancers.

The Colorado College commit stopped 21 of the 22 shots he faced Friday night and is now on a two-game winning streak between the pipes, marking the seventh time this season Mbereko has won back-to-back games. With one goal allowed, Friday night was Mbereko’s 18th time in 34 games this season he has allowed two-or-fewer goals.

Mbereko was ranked 19th among North American goaltenders on NHL Central Scouting’s midseason rankings after opening the season ranked as a C-rated player on the service’s preliminary list.

He represented Team USA at the 2022 World Junior Championship and holds an 18-11-1-2 record with a .900 save percentage and 2.93 goals-against average in 34 appearances this season, which are fifth and tied for fifth, respectively, in the league.

Back home, Mbereko played for the Aspen Jr. Leafs and Rocky Mountain Snow Kings.

(April 12, 2022)