LocalSportsJournal.com
GENEVA, Ill. – The Muskegon Lumberjack started Saturday night’s contest struggling and allowed three quick goals.
But the Jacks climbed out of their early hole, scoring five unanswered goals to defeat the Chicago Steel 5-3 at the Fox Valley Arena in Illinois.
Muskegon is now 23-14-2 on the season, good for 48 points and fourth place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference. The Lumberjacks are just one point behind third-place Youngstown and second-place Green Bay, and they are seven points behind first-place Dubuque with 23 games remaining.
Muskegon will close out its road trip Sunday in Madison against the Capitols. Faceoff is slated for 4 p.m. The Jacks will return to Trinity Health Arena next weekend with a pair of games against Youngstown.
On Saturday, the Steel jumped out to a seemingly commanding 3-0 lead with the first seven minutes of the game. Ben Wilmott opened the scoring for Chicago at the 2:14 mark, while Thor Byfuglien added a tally at 2:59 and Mick Thompson found the back of the net at 6:50.
The Lumberjacks responded with a goal from Cody Croal at 14:28 mark of the first period to cut the deficit to 3-1.
The Lumberjacks mounted a comeback during the second period by scoring three straight goals to take the lead.
Sacha Boisvert connected at the 4:33 mark while Justin Solovey scored at 10:29 to tie the contest midway through the game. The Lumberjacks took the lead, 4-3, at the 18:18 mark of the second period on a goal from Ethan Whitcomb.
Boisvert added an empty net goal with 5 seconds remaining in the contest to give the Jacks the 5-3 advantage.
The Lumberjacks outshot Chicago 31-24.
Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev earned the victory in goal, stopping all 17 shots faced. He came on in relief after the Lumberjacks had fallen behind 3-0 in the opening period. Miles Roberts started in goal for Muskegon and allowed three goals on seven shots in just under seven minutes of play.
The Jacks went 1-for-2 on the power play and killed off all three of Chicago’s extra-man advantages.
