Lumberjacks find bounce they need in shootout victory over Madison

By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – For much of the third period, it looked like the Muskegon Lumberjacks were not going to even have an opportunity to tie the contest or even muster a single shot.

The Lumberjacks trailed 2-1 entering the final period and they were held without a shot for more than 14 minutes of play.

But Muskegon remained calm and finally got its first shot at 14:20 of the period, then found the back of the net on its second attempt. That shot, off the stick of Hunter Anderson, came at 16:31 and forced overtime.

The game needed a shootout to declare a winner. Matvei Gridin scored the lone shootout goal in the third and final round to propel the Lumberjacks to a 3-2 win over Madison on Friday at Trinity Health Arena.

The Lumberjacks have now won two straight games and improved to 10-7-2 on the season, good for 22 points and fourth place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.

Muskegon will look to put some distance between it and the Capitols Saturday when they face off in a rematch at 7 p.m. on home ice.

“We take pride in being a puck possession team, but they (Madison) did a great job clogging up the neutral zone which didn’t allow us to get into the offensive zone,” said Lumberjacks assistant coach CJ Kusch. “We noticed they slowed down a bit and we just had to wait it out and the guys stepped up and got the job done.”

The Lumberjacks opened the scoring on their first shot of the contest as David Klee got a piece of the puck in front of the net on a shot from Cody Croal at the 1:38 mark of the first period. Klee’s fourth goal of the season also was assisted by Gridin and the Jacks held an early 1-0 lead.

Muskegon had a great opportunity to add to its lead midway through the opening period with a 4-on-3 power play for 33 seconds, a 5-on-3 advantage for 37 seconds, and a regular 5-on-4 chance for 51 seconds. The Lumberjacks had a couple near misses, but failed to get the puck in the net during their flurry of man advantages.

The Capitols were given a great opportunity to tie the game when Klee was ticketed for a four-minute double minor penalty for high sticking at the 13:12 mark of the first period.Muskegon looked like it was going to completely kill it off, but defenseman James Mackey connected with a shot near the blue line to tie the contest 1-1 at the 16:04 mark of the opening period.

The game was tied 1-1 heading into the first intermission.

The Capitols took their only lead of the game 2-1 a minute into the middle stanza on an unassisted goal from Andrew Kuma.

Madison had a few opportunities to increase its lead with a pair of power-play chances, but the Lumberjacks killed off both of them to keep the game a one-goal contest.

Muskegon was also given a couple of chances to tie the game with two late power plays, but the game remained 2-1 in favor of the Capitols heading into the final period.

The Lumberjacks struggled to produce any offensive pressure during the first 14 minutes of the third period as they failed to even collect a shot on goal.

Muskegon continued to push ahead and finally managed to tie the game on just its second shot of the period.

Anderson found the back of the net late in regulation at the 16:31 mark of the third period to tie the contest 2-2.

The game remained tied through 60 minutes of play, forcing a five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime period.

Muskegon had a 26-18 advantage in shots on goal, but only managed to muster four during the final 20 minutes.

The Lumberjacks had a great chance to win the game in overtime with a power-play opportunity, but could not score. Both teams failed to score during the five-minute extra stanza, forcing a shootout to determine the ultimate winner.

Gridin scored the lone goal in the shootout to propel the Lumberjacks to victory.

The Lumberjacks outshot Madison 30-20 as goaltender Lukas Swedin stopped 18-of-20 shots in net as well as all three Madison shots in the shootout.

Muskegon went 0-for-5 on the power play but killed five of the Capitols six man advantages.

“We came in saying that we had to win the special teams battle,” Kusch said. “The guys stepped up and took away what Madison wanted to do on the power play. They did an awesome job clearing the puck.”