LocalSportsJournal.com
The Muskegon Lumberjacks ended their three-game weekend road trip with a wild victory.
The Lumberjacks fell behind by two goals, tied the game, fell behind again and came back to take the lead before holding off the Lincoln Stars for a 6-4 win on Sunday at the Ice Box Arena.
Muskegon is now 27-7-2 on the season, good for 56 points and first place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference. The Lumberjacks currently hold a 13-point lead over second place Chicago for the regular season Eastern Conference title.
The Lumberjacks will return home next weekend to play the Fargo Force on Friday and the Under-18 Team USA squad on Saturday. Both games are slated to start at 7:15 EST.
Alex Yakovenko paced Muskegon with two goals and an assist while Mikael Hakkarainen added a goal and an assist.
Ryan McInchak stopped 21 of 24 shots for the Lumberjacks in net while Brandon Bussi stopped 1 of 2 shots in 7:15 of relief in goal for Muskegon.
The Stars opened the scoring with a pair of first period goals from Josh Lopina (13:35) and Tristian Ashbrook (19:19) to give Lincoln a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
The Lumberjacks tied the game 2-2 during the second period with goals by Egor Afanasyev and Yakovenko at the 5:04 and 10:39 mark, respectively.
Lincoln regained its lead at 3-2 at the end of the second stanza with a late goal from Lopina with 14 seconds remaining.
Muskegon tied the game 3-3 on a Danil Gushchin tally 42 seconds into the third period.
The Lumberjacks then added another two goals on tallies from Yakovenko and Owen Farris to give Muskegon and 5-3 advantage.
The Stars cut their deficit to 5-4 with a goal from Justin Lee at the 12:58 mark of the third period.
Hakkarainen closed out the scoring for Muskegon with an empty net goal with one second left on the clock.
The Lumberjacks outshot Lincoln by a 34-26 margin.
