By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks are currently one of the best offensive teams in the USHL and it showed once again on Saturday night at Trinity Health Arena.
The Jacks had seven different players find the back of the net in an 8-2 thrashing over the Chicago Steel.
Muskegon has now won three games in a row and is 4-1 on the season, good for eight points and a three-way tie for second place in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Lumberjacks will go back on the road next weekend for a pair of games against the Madison Capitols before returning to Muskegon Oct. 21 to face the Under-17 Team USA squad.
“I think our group is very offensively driven, and when they are consistent with their effort without the puck, they are doing the little things to get the results,” said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. “That makes us hard to play against and we did that in both the first and third period.”
It didn’t take long for the Jacks to get on the board as Sacha Boisvert connected with his fifth goal of the season just 45 seconds into the game to give Muskegon the 1-0 lead.
The Lumberjacks added to their lead just five seconds after getting presented with their first power play of the contest. David Klee’s second goal of the season at the 11:06 mark of the first period with the man advantage increased the Lumberjacks lead to 2-0.
Muskegon maintained its 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission while outshooting the Steel by a 16-7 margin.
The Steel responded with their first goal of the contest 2:04 into the second period on a tally from Mick Thompson that cut the Jacks’ advantage to 2-1.
The Lumberjacks regained a two-goal advantage with a shorthanded goal from Jack Galanek 8:55 into the second period to give Muskegon a 3-1 lead.
Chicago cut its deficit to 3-2 with a goal from Price Grimes 12:43 into the middle stanza.
The Lumberjacks held a slim 3-2 advantage heading into the final period of play and outshot their opponents 32-19.
Muskegon set fire offensively during the final 20 minutes of play with five unanswered goals.
Matvei Gridin scored a power-play goal 3:29 into the stanza to increase the Lumberjacks lead to 4-2. Justin Solovey increased Muskegon’s lead to 5-2 at the 8:04 mark of the period.
Joe Connor added a goal at the 9:27 mark of the third period, then Solovey notched his second of the night and fourth of the season 13:46 into the third period to increase the Jacks lead to a 7-2 margin.
Hunter Anderson closed out the game scoring with 17 seconds left in the contest.
The Lumberjacks outshot Chicago, 48-25.
Lukas Swedin stopped 23-of-25 shots in net for Muskegon.
Muskegon went 2-for-3 on the power play while also managing to score a shorthanded goal. The Jacks also killed off all four of Chicago’s man advantages.
“On any given night anybody can step up,” Burgess said. “It’s nice to have that type of depth and it’s a credit to the guys who have put this team together.”
