By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have shown this far how to give their fans a great time at Trinity Health Arena.

Entering Saturday night’s contest, the Lumberjacks have won both of their past games on home ice and have outscored their opponents by a 14-5 margin.

Muskegon’s Xavier Veilleux. Photo/Sondra Workman

The dominance continued as Muskegon plowed past the Under-17 Team USA squad 6-3 to win their third straight contest.

 The Lumberjacks are now 7-2 on the season, good for 14 points in the standings. They are currently in second place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference, two points behind the Dubuque Fighting Saints.

Next weekend, Muskegon will have a chance to continue its strong play at home when it hosts three straight games against the Green Bay Gamblers starting on Friday night at 7 p.m.

“There have been some ups and downs, but I think we have a special group of players,” said Lumberjacks assistant coach Evan Trupp. “We have a lot of weapons offensively and we are very structured defensively and our goalies help us out. It’s been a lot of fun and you can feel the energy in the room.”

Matvei Gridin had a solid performance for the Lumberjacks, scoring two goals while picking up three assists for a total of five points.

“He is probably losing track of his point totals,” Trupp said. “It seems like on every play he is making something happen.”

Ethan Whitcomb added two goals and an assist, while Cody Croal chipped in with three assists.

The Lumberjacks were handed a great opportunity to open the scoring with a four-minutes power play at the 7:30 mark of the opening period.

But Team USA’s Cole McKinney stole the puck near the blue line and scored on a breakaway 9:11 into the opening period to give the Under-17 squad a 1-0 lead.

Muskegon goalie Paxton Geisel pokes the puck out of harm’s way. Photo/Sondra Workman

The Lumberjacks responded quickly with a power-play tally from Gridin at the 9:30 mark of the first period to tie the contest.

Muskegon grabbed its first lead of the night 12:39 into the opening period on a goal from Whitcomb.

The Lumberjacks added a late power-play goal with 4.1 seconds remaining in the first period as Gridin found the back of the net for his second of the night, ninth of the season.

“It was a good team performance, minus the second period,” Gridin said. “It has been a great personal start for me and for the team. We need to keep working hard to become the best team in the league.”

Muskegon held a 3-1 advantage heading into the middle stanza. Both teams had nine shots on goal through 20 minutes of play.

Whitcomb increased the Lumberjacks lead with a breakaway goal, his second of the night, just 26 seconds into the second period to give Muskegon a 4-1 lead.

Team USA responded with goals from Conrad Fondrk and Will Moore at the 14:47 and 18:19 marks of the second period, respectively, to cut the Lumberjacks lead to a 4-3 margin.

Muskegon’s No. 17 Sam Spehar. Photo/Sondra Workman

The Jacks maintained a 4-3 lead heading into the final period despite being outshot 26-22.

“We had more of a calm down speech in the locker room,” Trupp said. “Let’s get back to playing hockey and keep our eyes on the task.”

Muskegon regained its two-goal lead at 5-3 on Sacha Boisvert’s sixth goal of the season at the 4:35 mark of the third period.

The Lumberjacks added another goal 7:07 into the third period as Ty Henricks took a pass right in front from David Klee and buried it to increase Muskegon’s advantage to 6-3.

Muskegon was outshot 38-28 as goalkeeper Paxton Geisel stopped 35-of-38 shots faced.

The Lumberjacks were 2-for-4 on the power play while killing off three of Team USA’s four extra-man advantages.