By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have had a lot of success offensively this season through the first 15 games of the season.

The Lumberjacks entered the contest third in the league in scoring with 62 total goals behind Dubuque and Sioux City, which both had 75. On Fridy night, it took the Lumberjacks awhile to produce any offense as they were held scoreless for more than 2 1/2 periods.

Muskegon could not find enough offense as the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders survived with a slim 2-1 victory on Friday night at the Trinity Health Arena. The Lumberjacks have now lost two games in a row and five of their last six contests.

Muskegon is now 8-5-2 on the season, good for 18 points and fifth place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.

The Lumberjacks will look to bounce back and start a winning streak as they will face Cedar Rapids on Saturday night in Muskegon. Faceoff is slated for 7 p.m.

“We are not going to lose too many games this year giving up two goals,” said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. “We must be hungrier on rebounds and making plays and I thought we had a few during the first period.

“I am not disappointed in the effort,” he said. “I think our structure was tremendous and the special teams were good tonight. We just need to continue to do things the right way and take action to create progress towards a step in the right direction.”

The first period ended in a scoreless tie with the RoughRiders outshooting Muskegon, 7-4. Both teams failed to score on their lone power plays and there were three 10-minute misconducts handed out.

The RoughRiders finally ended the scoring drought near the halfway mark of the contest as Drew Stewart took a pass from the blue line and backhanded it in at the 8:28 mark.

The Lumberjacks were handed their third power play shortly after 10:03 into the middle stanza with the hopes of tying the score. Muskegon failed to find the back of the net during the two-minute man advantage.

Cedar Rapids added a crucial late second period goal at the 18:57 mark to increase the RoughRiders lead on a tally from Kason Muscutt. The RoughRiders held a 2-0 advantage heading into the final period of play while outshooting Muskegon 20-11.

The Lumberjacks were handed a glorious opportunity to get on the scoreboard with a two-man advantage for 98 seconds.

Sacha Boisvert connected with a power-play goal 13:42 into the third period to cut the Lumberjacks deficit to 2-1.

The Jacks killed off the last power play handed to Cedar Rapids and pulled the goalie in the late going, but failed to score the game-tying goal.

Cedar Rapids outshot the Lumberjack 24-23.

Lukas Swedin suffered the loss in net despite having a solid game. He stopped 22-of-24 shots faced.

Muskegon was 1-for-5 on its power play and killed off all four RoughRiders man advantages.

Muskegon’s Cooper Pierson. Photo/Sondra Workman

Lukas Swedin gets ready to make a save in goal for Muskegon. Photo/Sondra Workman

Easton Young makes a pass for Muskegon. Photo/Sondra Workman

Lumberjacks goalie Lukas Swedin gets down for a save. Photo/Sondra Workman