LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – Easton Young’s game-winning goal with 1.7 seconds left in overtime propelled the Muskegon Lumberjacks to a 6-5 win over the defending champion Youngstown Phantoms.
The Lumberjacks will play a pair of games next weekend against the Chicago Steel before opening the regular season in Pittsburgh on Sept. 23 against Omaha.
Muskegon will host the Steel next Saturday after playing its lone road game of the preseason on Friday.
The Lumberjacks, who are 2-0 this preseason, will play their home opener against Team USA on Sept. 29 at Trinity Health Arena.
The teams exchanged goals in the opening period as Cooper Pierson opened the scoring for the Jacks at the 12:07 mark. Youngstown tied the game 1-1 with a goal from Charlie Lieberman 14:40 into the first period.
Both teams found the back of the net twice during the middle stanza as Matvei Gridin (1:26) and David Klee (5:45) scored for Muskegon while the Phantoms countered with tallies by Ryan Botterill (4:00) and Ryan Shaw (10:09).
The Lumberjacks opened the third-period scoring at the 6:06 mark on a goal from Jacob Terpstra to give Muskegon a 4-3 lead.
The Phantoms tied the game 4-4 at the 10:34 mark of the third period with a goal from Andrew Strathmann.
Muskegon regained its advantage at 5-4 with a goal by Hunter Anderson with just over five minutes left to play, but the Phantoms tied the game to force overtime at the 18:26 mark with a goal from Strathmann.
Young sealed the victory for the Jacks with his game-winning goal late in the extra stanza.
The Phantoms outshot Muskegon by a 55-31 margin.
Muskegon scored on one of its three power plays while killing five of the Phantom’s seven extra-man advantages.
Lucas Szyszka started in net for the Lumberjacks and stopped 23-of-25 shots, while Lukas Swedin earned the win in relief. Swedin stopped 27-of-29 shots faced.
