LocalSportsJournal.com
The Muskegon Lumberjacks overcame a wild night of penalties in their 6-2 win over visiting Dubuque on Saturday.
Muskegon tallied a pair of shorthanded goals in the first period and held the Fighting Saints scoreless into the third period to hang on to the win in front of 1,632 fans.
Luke Buss put in his first goal of the season in the first period for Muskegon after William Hughes was whistled for holding. Cody Croal and Gavin McCarthy assisted on the play.
The Lumberjacks took a 2-0 lead right before the end of the first period on Croal’s second goal of the season, this time the helper coming from Buss. The tally came shorthanded with Michael Callow in the box.
Callow made up for his first-period infraction by giving Muskegon a 3-0 lead, six minutes into the second period, with an unassisted goal.
The third period was anything but clean hockey as both teams were whistled for 17 combined penalties that included a pair of ejections. 27 total penalties were called on the night, but not one came from fighting.
Tyler Hotson came out as the Lumberjacks’ star of the third period as he tallied a pair of goals to slam the door on Dubuque.
Hotson gave Muskegon a 4-0 lead barely a minute into the final stanza on assists from Ethan Whitecomb and Easton Young. The goal came on the powerplay which Muskegon was 1 of six on for the night.
After a pair of powerplay goals from Dubuque’s Ryan St. Louis and Nils Juntorp, Hotson found the back of the net on the helper from Nicholas Rexine.
Matvei Gridin capped off scoring for Muskegon with an empty netter just before time expired on the sloppy night.
The Lumberjacks defense held strong in the contest, giving up 2 of 8 Dubuque powerplays.
Goaltender Conor Callaghan stopped 20 of 22 shots on the night and improved his overall record to 3-1.
Muskegon is now 4-4-0, good enough for fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings while Dubuque falls to 3-3-1.
