Mikael Hakkarainen leads the Lumberjacks to a 7-3 win over Team USA Under-17s

LocalSportsJournal.com

Mikael Hakkarainen is having a solid offensive week for the Muskegon Lumberjacks.

On Thursday, Hakkarainen notched assists on four of the five Muskegon goals in its win over Central Illinois.

Hakkarainen continued his tear on Friday night with two goals and an assist to lead the Lumberjacks to a 7-3 win over the Under-17 Team USA squad at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.

The Lumberjacks are now 33-11-3 on the season, good for 69 points and first place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference standings.

Muskegon will return home on Saturday night to host the Madison Capitols. Faceoff is slated for 7:15 p.m.

Both teams failed to score during the opening period but made up for it during the second stanza.

The Lumberjacks opened the scoring with a goal from Hakkarainen at the 1:20 mark of the second period.

Team USA tied the game 1-1 with a Brock Faber goal 3:03 into the second period.

Muskegon then scored three unanswered goals from Colby Bukes (6:02), Hakkarainen (9:03) and Jagger Joshua (11:03) to give the Lumberjacks a 4-1 advantage.

Team USA cut the deficit to 4-2 at the 15:20 mark of the second period on a goal from Daniyal Dzhaniyev, then made the score 4-3 with a goal 3:40 into the third period by Ty Smilanic.

The Lumberjacks finished the contest strong during the third period with three unanswered goals scored by Egor Afanasyev (7:26), Andrej Kollar (13:25) and Igor Larionov (15:07).

Muskegon outshot Team USA by a 33-20 margin.

Brandon Bussi stopped 17 of 20 shots in net for the Lumberjacks.