Local Sports Journal
In their first of two meetings this season at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, the Muskegon Lumberjacks and Cedar Rapids RoughRiders renewed acquaintances where the visiting Lumberjacks were able to strain out a point in due part to the solid goaltending of Eric Schierhorn as the host RoughRiders snagged the extra point in overtime coming away with a 3-2 victory tonight.
The Lumberjacks (9-7-4, 22 points) got off to a fast start in the game notching a goal at the 1:35 mark from Christopher Dodero for his fourth goal of the season as he found a loose puck in the left faceoff circle off a rebound given up by Danny Tirone (7-2-0) off a shot from Matt Mendelson in the right faceoff circle to make it a 1-0 game. Cooper Marody also assisted on the Dodero marker.
The score held into the first intermission with Eric Schierhorn (5-4-1) holding his own in net for Muskegon stopping all 25 shots that came his way in the first 20 minutes. The Lumberjacks had six shots in the opening frame.
The game cruised into the second half of the middle frame when the RoughRiders (12-3-1, 25 points) laced the equalizer at the 10:59 mark as Jack Rowe buried home his sixth goal of the season off a loose rebound in front of the net after a shot from Andrew Poturalski hit a few bodies in the slot and slid loose on the back door for the tip-in goal.
A few minutes later at the 16:47 mark, Cedar Rapids seized their first lead of the night at 2-1 as Dylan Steman flipped a backhand pass from the center ice logo behind the Muskegon defense and found Judd Peterson all alone on a breakaway in which he roofed his ninth goal of the season top shelf over Schierhorn.
The RoughRiders took that one shot lead into the final intermission while dominating the shot category by a wide 41-11 margin.
Early in the third period, the Lumberjacks took advantage of penalty trouble from Cedar Rapids and ripped a power play goal at the 3:15 mark from Matt Iacopelli for his team-leading 13th goal of the season as a shot from the right had eyes through traffic past Tirone’s glove side that was helped by Tommy Panico.
The rest of regulation featured solid goaltending and defense, and the game would trickle into an overtime session.
The host RoughRiders were able to get the last laugh in overtime with 1:59 to go in the four-on-four session as Poturalski found a wide open Corey Petrash on the back door at the Muskegon blue line and roped a wrist shot past a sprawling Schierhorn from between the faceoff circles for his fifth marker of the season and the game-winning goal. Cedar Rapids outshot Muskegon on the night, 48-21.
Danny Tirone made 19 saves on the game to earn his seventh victory of the season, while Eric Schierhorn stopped a season-high 45 shots in the overtime loss. Five players notched at least a point for both teams offensively with Andrew Poturalski leading all scorers with two assists for the RoughRiders. The Lumberjacks fall to 1-1-1 against Cedar Rapids this season with one regular season meeting left in Cedar Rapids in late February.
