LocalSportsJournal.com
A four-goal first period explosion helped snap the Muskegon Lumberjacks short two-game losing streak.
The Lumberjacks bounced back from Friday night’s shutout loss against Youngstown with a 5-1 win over the Phantoms on Saturday night at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio.
Muskegon is now 29-16-4 on the season, good for 62 points in the USHL’s Eastern Conference standings. 
The Lumberjacks victory over Youngstown leapfrogs Muskegon to third place in the standings, three points behind Dubuque and Chicago for first place and six points ahead of Green Bay for the final playoff spot.
Muskegon will host the Bloomington Thunder on Thursday and Friday night at the L.C. Walker Arena. Both games are slated to faceoff at 7:15 p.m.
Andrei Svechnikov paced Muskegon with two goals on the night while Austin Alger chipped in with two assists.
The Lumberjacks jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first period with goals from Ty Farmer (1:15), Collin Adams (9:42), Mikael Hakkarainen (12:52) and Svechnikov (19:27).
The Phantoms cut their deficit to 4-1 with a second period goal from Curtis Hall at the 5:44 mark.
Muskegon increased its lead to 5-1 at the 10:02 mark of the third period on Svechnikov’s second goal of the night.
Youngstown outshot the Lumberjacks by a 30-23 margin and both teams combined to total 132 penalty minutes.
Keith Petruzzelli picked up the win in net for Muskegon, stopping 29 of 30 shots.
