DES MOINES – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have been in some tight games recently that have needed overtime or a shootout to determine the winner.
The Lumberjacks did not have much success in those recent games, which resulted in a three-game losing streak heading into this weekend’s road contests. It took yet another overtime to decide the winner on Friday night, but this time the results landed in the Lumberjacks’ favor.
Matvei Gridin’s overtime goal at the 31-second mark lifted Muskegon to a 5-4 win over the Des Moines Buccaneers on Friday night at the Buccaneer Arena in Iowa.
The Lumberjacks snapped their losing streak and improved to 8-3-2 on the season, good for 18 points and a current tie for third place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.
Muskegon will end its short road trip Saturday when it faces off with the Waterloo Black Hawks. Faceoff is slated for 7 p.m.
The Buccaneers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Ben Kevan opened the scoring at the 4:21 mark of the opening period to give Des Moines a 1-0 lead. The Buccaneers increased their advantage to 2-0 with a goal from Owen West 15:03 into the first period.Ilya Protas added another goal for Des Moines to give the Buccaneers a 3-0 lead at the 15:52 mark of the first period.
The Jacks finally responded at the 16:11 mark of the first period on a goal from Hunter Anderson.
Muskegon trailed 3-1 heading into the first intermission while getting outshot 14-5.
The Lumberjacks scored the only two goals in the second period as Sacha Boisvert cut the deficit to 2-1 at the 1:38 mark of the second period and Cooper Pierson tied the game at 7:33.
The contest was deadlocked 3-3 going into the final 20 minutes of play.
Both teams exchanged goals in the third period, setting up for the Lumberjacks to play their third game in the last four nights in overtime.
Justin Solovey gave Muskegon its first lead of the night with a goal at the 12:38 mark of the third period.
The Buccaneers tied the contest with just over two minutes remaining in regulation on a goal from Paul Minnehan.
That set up Gridin for the game winner early in the extra session.
Des Moines outshot the Lumberjacks 34-26. Lukas Swedin started in net for the Lumberjacks, but was pulled just 15:52 into the contest after stopping 11-of-14 shots faced.
Paxton Geisel picked up the win in net for Muskegon, stopping 19-of-20 shots faced in over two periods of relief.
The Lumberjacks were 0-for-3 on the power play while Des Moines scored two power-play goals on its five opportunities.