By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks are heading to the Clark Cup playoffs.
The Lumberjacks came into Saturday night needing a win and Cedar Rapids loss to clinch their first postseason berth since the 2022 campaign. Muskegon surely did its part as four of the squad’s top forwards had multi-point games and the team held on after a late surge in a 6-3 win against the Sioux City Musketeers at Trinity Health Arena.
The Lumberjacks improved to 33-20-2, good for 68 points and third place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference standings.
Cedar Rapids lost to the Chicago Steel and officially allowed the Lumberjacks to punch their ticket to the 2024 Clark Cup Playoffs.
“It was obviously our goal this year to make the playoffs,” said Lumberjacks assistant coach Adam Morrison. “It means a lot to our guys, especially the ones from last year’s team.”
Muskegon will host the Under-17 Team USA squad Sunday to complete a game from last February that was postponed after two periods of play due to poor ice conditions. The Lumberjacks will enter the third period on Sunday with a 3-0 lead.
On Saturday night, Matvei Gridin, Cody Croal, Sacha Boisvert and Joe Connor produced multiple points for the Lumberjacks. Boisvert and Gridin each had two goals and an assist to lead the way, while Connor had a goal and two assists. Croal chipped in with two assists.
“It certainly felt like a playoff game both last night and tonight,” Morrison said. “Our big guys put the puck in the net tonight, but every player from top to bottom did something positive tonight.”
The Lumberjacks opened the scoring with a pair of goals 26 seconds apart. Boisvert opened the scoring with his 32nd goal of the season at the 5:48 mark. He took a pass from Connor and found a wide-open net.
Connor added a goal 6:14 for his 25th of the season to give Muskegon the two-goal advantage.
The Lumberjacks extended their lead 3-0 with a goal from Gridin at the 2:01 mark of the middle period.
The Musketeers finally responded with a goal from Riley Brueck at 15:50.
Gridin added his second goal of the night on a pass in front of the net from Cooper Pierson in the latter stages of the period.
In the third period, Sioux City cut the deficit to 4-2 with Brueck’s second goal of the night at the 6:24 mark.
The Musketeers inched a little closer with a goal from Giacomo Martino at 9:31 to cut Muskegon’s lead to 4-3.
The Lumberjacks responded with a Justin Solovey goal just past the midpoint of the period and gave Muskegon another two-goal advantage.
Sioux City pulled its goalie while on the power play and it almost paid off at the 17:04 mark, but after a video replay, it was determined the puck hit under the crossbar and not inside the net.
The Jacks closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal from Boisvert.
The Musketeers outshot Muskegon 33-30. Muskegon goaltender Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev stopped 30 shots to earn the victory.
