By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have picked a great time to start winning their games on a consistent basis.

The Jacks entered Saturday night’s game riding a three-game winning streak and climbing up the USHL’s Eastern Conference standings.

Muskegon’s Cooper Pierson. Photo/Sondra Workman

The pesky defending Clark Cup Champion Youngstown Phantoms gave Muskegon everything they had, coming back from three one-goal deficits. But the Lumberjacks were relentless and refused to quit, resulting in a solid 5-3 victory over Youngstown at Trinity Health Arena.

Muskegon is now 26-14-2 on the season, good for 54 points and second place in the Eastern Conference. The Lumberjacks are just four points back first place Dubuque with 20 games remaining on Muskegon’s schedule.

Muskegon will return to action next Saturday with a home game at Trinity Health Arena against the Under-17 USA squad. Faceoff is slated for 7:10 p.m.

“It’s harder to win in this league and it’s even harder to sweep,” said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. “A team like Youngstown has character and they have won it before. Our guys got rewarded. It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was enough. We made more plays and buckled down when we had too.”

The Lumberjacks opened the scoring 13:35 into the opening period as David Klee scored right in front of the net on a backhand with his back towards the Youngstown goalie.

Jack Galanek follows the puck across the blue line for Muskegon. Photo/Sondra Workman

The Phantoms tied the contest 1-1 with a goal from Grant Young  at 16:12.

The Lumberjacks took a 2-1 lead with five seconds remaining in the period on a goal from Sacha Boisvert on a shot from between the blue line and the faceoff circles.

Muskegon had a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission while outshooting the Phantoms 13-10.

Youngstown’s Daniel Jencko drove to the net and scored the tying goal at the 8:03 mark of the second period.

The Jacks responded right back a little over two minutes later with a goal from Matvei Gridin and regained the lead at 3-2.

Muskegon managed to keep its one-goal lead heading into the third period despite getting outshot 20-5 in the second period. The Phantoms held a 30-18 shots on goal advantage heading into the final frame.

The Phantoms tied the game for a third time with a goal at 1:44 from Ryan Botterill.

Muskegon goalie Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev follows the puck in front of the net. Photo/Sondra Workman

The Lumberjacks bounced back again and retook the lead at 4-3 as Klee scored his second of the contest at the 8:53 mark.

Muskegon finally got its two-goal lead, an empty net goal with 19.7 seconds remaining from Boisvert.

The Phantoms outshot Muskegon 42-27 as Lumberjacks’ goaltender Shikhabudtin Gadzhiev earned another win in net. He stopped 39-of-42 shots.

All three penalties called in the contest were on Muskegon, which killed all three of the Phantoms power plays.

“It was probably the first game in Youngstown history where they went the entire game without a penalty,” Burgess said jokingly after the game. “We weren’t saints by any means either, but sometimes you have to win games 5-on-5 and you don’t get special team opportunities.”

Take a look at more shots from the action shot by Sondra Workman.