Connor bags four goals, leads Lumberjacks to rout of USHL’s top team

By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks figured they had their hands full this weekend at Trinity Health Arena.

Muskegon’s Matvei Gridin (92). Photo/Sondra Workman

Instead, Joe Connor was a handful for the Fargo Force. Connor scored four goals in the Lumberjacks’ 7-3 victory over the best team in the USHL.

The Force have only tasted defeat four times this year and just once by more than one goal. The Force also came into the contest with an eight-game winning streak and statistically had the best offense and defense in the entire league.

But the Lumberjacks bullied them to defeat, handing Fargo its worst loss of the season on a snowy Friday night in Muskegon.

Muskegon is now 19-11-2 on the season, good for 40 points and a second-place tie in the USHL’s Eastern Conference standings. The Lumberjacks are six points behind first-place Dubuque with slightly less than half a season still to play.

Muskegon will look to complete the sweep against the current leaders of the league Saturday night at Trinity Health Arena. Faceoff will be 7 p.m.

“It was a lot of fun and I think it started Monday with a really good week of practice, and we were really dialed in,” said Lumberjacks assistant coach Evan Trupp. “It was an all-out effort.”

Connor was brilliant offensively in leading the Jacks to victory. The 18-year-old forward from Amherst, N.H. raised his season goal total to 15.

“He has been a spark plug,” Trupp said. “He has missed a few games, but he brings energy to the lineup and he plays the right way.”

The Lumberjacks struck first 5:05 into the opening period on a goal from Justin Solovey from the left faceoff circle.

Muskegon added to its lead while being a man short on the ice. Connor took advantage of an overly aggressive Fargo goaltender trying to play the puck in the middle of his defensive zone. Connor stole the puck and scored on a wide-open net.

Muskegon’s Bauer Berry. Photo/Sondra Workman

The goal was scored at the 12:45 mark of the first period to give the Lumberjacks a 2-0 lead.

The Force had their first opportunity to respond with a two-man advantage for 47 seconds. Fargo connected just four seconds after the first penalty expired at the 15:28 mark of the first period on a power-play goal from Lee Gruba to cut the Lumberjacks advantage to 2-1.

Muskegon maintained its 2-1 lead after the opening period while getting outshot by 7-4.

The Lumberjacks scored just 27 seconds into the second period with a goal from Ethan Whitcomb to make it 3-1.

Muskegon continued its offensive tear after getting its first power play of the contest. Connor connected on the power play 2:36 into the middle period and it was 4-1 for the Lumberjacks. Whitcomb picked up his 100^th career USHL point on the goal.

“He is the leader of the team,” Trupp said. “He is a nice, humble kid and you love to see someone like that make an achievement like that. He is just a great guy.”

The Lumberjacks added a pair of goals as Cody Croal found the back of the net at the 7:39 mark of the second period and Connor completed his three-goal outburst at 11:48 to give Muskegon a 6-1 lead.

The Force finally once again found the back of the net at the 13:32 mark of the third period with a goal from Tom Leppa to cut the Lumberjacks advantage to a 6-2.

But Muskegon retaliated with Connor’s fourth goal of the contest, a power-play goal at 15:06.

Fargo closed out the scoring with 16 seconds left in the game with a power-play goal from Lee Parks.

Fargo had a 40-23 advantage in shots on goal, but the scoreboard was tilted heavily in favor of the Lumberjacks.

Shikhabudtin Gadzhiev earned his second consecutive win in net for Muskegon by stopping 37-of-40 shots faced.

Muskegon went 2-for-3 on the power play and killed off 6-of-8 Force extra-man advantages.

Take a look at more photos shot by Sondra Worman.