LocalSportsJournal.com

History was made on Sunday night as Lumberjack forward Danil Gushchin recorded three points to give him 120 in his career for Muskegon making him the all-time point leader ahead former Muskegon forward Matej Paulovic.

However, the result on the ice was not as positive as the Lumberjacks fell to the Chicago Steel 7-4 at the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Illinois.

Muskegon, which failed to complete three straight wins against the Steel, is now 16-8-2 on the season, good for 34 points and second place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.

The Lumberjacks will return home on Friday to play Team USA. Faceoff will be at 7:10 p.m.

The Steel opened the scoring with the lone goal of the first period on a tally from Sean Farrell at the 15:25 mark.

Farrell scored his second goal of the contest just nine seconds into the second period to give the Steel a 2-0 lead.

The Lumberjacks cut their deficit to 2-1 on a goal by Dylan Wendt 4:21 into the second period.

Chicago’s Farrell completed his three-goal hat trick at the 11:41 mark of the second period, then Josh Doan added a tally 14:49 into the middle stanza to increase the Steel’s lead to 4-1.

Danil Gushchin tied the franchise record in points at the 15:39 mark of the second period with an unassisted shorthanded goal to cut the Muskegon deficit to 4-2.

The Steel closed out the second period scoring with a goal from Adam Fantilli 16:08 into the stanza.

Both teams exchanged two goals during the third period with Chicago’s Jack Bar (7:09) and Erik Middendorf (10:05) scoring for the Steel, while Tanner Kelly (7:49) and Gushchin (15:06) found the back of the net for the Lumberjacks.

Gushchin’s finally tally propelled him to the top of the list in all-time points for the Lumberjacks.

The Lumberjacks outshot Chicago by a 32-24 margin.

Jan Skorpik stopped 10-of-15 shots for the Lumberjacks in just over 36 minutes of play while Nate Reid closed out the game by stopping 7-of-9 shots.