LocalSportsJournal.com
The Muskegon Lumberjacks continued their losing skid, dropping a fifth straight contest.
The Lumberjacks failed to dig out of a five-goal hole on Wednesday night in a 7-3 loss to the
Youngstown Phantoms at the Covelli Arena.
Muskegon is now 4-9-2 on the season, which is good for 10 points and last place in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Lumberjacks will look to end their struggles on Saturday at the L.C. Walker Arena against the Lincoln Stars. Faceoff will be slated for 7:15 p.m.
The Phantoms opened the scoring at the 4:42 mark of the second period on a goal from Alex Barber to give Youngstown a 1-0 lead.
Youngstown added four unanswered goals to take a commanding 5-0 lead with goals from Matthew Berry (8:08), Eric Esposito (10:50) and Curtis Hall (12:18) before Esposito added his second tally of the evening at the 12:27 mark.
The Lumberjacks finally scored 18:08 into the second period on a goal by Clayton Phillips to cut Muskegon’s deficit to 5-1 at the end of the second stanza.
Marc Del Gaizo added a goal for the Lumberjacks at the 6:38 mark of the third period to cut the disadvantage to 5-2.
The Phantoms responded with goals by Matthew Thomson and Max Ellis at the 8:29 and 9:47 marks of the third to increase their lead to 7-2.
The Lumberjacks closed out the scoring 18:59 into the final frame with a goal from Anthony Del Gaizo.
Muskegon outshot the Phantoms by a 41-25 margin despite suffering the loss.
Adam Brizgala stopped 10 of 15 shots in just over 32 minutes of play while backup goalkeeper Keegan Karki stopped eight of 10 shots in over 27 minutes of play.
