Tired Muskegon Lumberjacks drop decision to Lincoln at Trinity Health Arena

By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – Three games in three nights is not an easy task for any hockey team.

The Muskegon Lumberjacks faced that challenge heading into the weekend and it sure looked like the squad ran out of gas.

The Lumberjacks entered Sunday’s contest looking to sweep the Lincoln Stars and take two-of-three games over the weekend.

Muskegon once again started out slow by giving up three unanswered first-period goals and never did overcome the deficit. In the end, the Jacks fell 5-2 to the Stars 5-2 at Trinity Health Arena.

The Lumberjacks are now 22-14-2 on the season, good for 46 points and third place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.

Muskegon will look to bounce back next weekend on the road, starting with a game against the Chicago Steel on Saturday night. Faceoff will be at 8:05 p.m. from Illinois. The Lumberjacks will remain on the road next Saturday to face the Madison Capitols before heading back home the following weekend to host the Youngstown Phantoms starting on Feb. 9.

“When you get down like that you have to try and chase the game,” said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. “I liked our pass in the third period, but it was hard to create offense. We just can’t keep playing from behind.”

The Lumberjacks were ticketed with two early penalties, giving Lincoln a two-man advantage for 59 seconds. The Stars scored just before the first penalty expired at the 2:25 mark of the opening period on a goal from Blake Montgomery.

Lincoln increased its advantage to 2-0 at the 14:12 mark with a goal from Jacob Rombach.

The Stars closed out the opening-period scoring at 16:51 on a goal by Justin Mexico.

Lincoln led 3-0 after one and had a 14-7 advantage in shots on goal.

The Jacks finally responded 1:14 into the second period on Ethan Whitcomb’s 11^th goal of the season to cut the deficit to 3-1.

The Stars responded with their second power play of the night at the 11:38 mark on a goal from Jared Mangan to take a 4-1 lead.

After the fourth goal, Muskegon pulled its starting goalie Shikhabudtin Gadzhiev for backup Miles Roberts.

The Stars led 4-1 after two and had an advantage in shots on goal, 32-16.

The Lumberjacks cut their deficit to 4-2 with a goal from Cody Croal at the 5:50 mark of the third period.

Lincoln put the game to bed with an empty-net power play goal from Mangan at the 17:09 mark for a 5-2 lead.

The Stars outshot Muskegon 40-26 in the game.

Gadzhiev stopped 19-of-23 shots on net for the Lumberjacks, while Roberts made all 16 saves.

The Jacks struggled in the special team’s department, going 0-for-3 on the power play while Lincoln was 3-for-5 on its man advantages.