LocalSportsJournal.com
YOUNGSTOWN – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have been climbing out of early deficits of late and winning in comeback fashion.
On Sunday, their luck ran out as they failed to climb out of a four-goal, third-period deficit and lost to the Youngstown Phantoms 7-4 at Covelli Centre in Ohio.
The Lumberjacks snapped their three-game winning streak and fell to 31-17-2 on the season, good for 64 points and second place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.
Muskegon, which has 12 games left on the season, will return home this weekend to play the first-place Dubuque Fighting Saints in a pair of games. The first game will be on Friday at 7:10 p.m. at Trinity Health Arena.
Most of the goals were scored in the opening period as Youngstown held a 4-3 advantage after 20 minutes of play.
Michael Munroe and Connor de Haro opened the scoring for Youngstown to give the Phantoms a 2-0 lead.
Sascha Boisvert scored the first goal for Muskegon at the 5:09 mark.
Youngstown added goals from Kuzma Voronin and Ryan Botterill.
The Lumberjacks trailed 4-1 just past the halfway point of the first period before Justin Solovey (14:45) and Cody Croal (18:01) found the back of the net.
The Phantoms outscored Muskegon 3-0 during the second period as Adam Pietila scored a pair of goals and Charlie Cerrato had a single tally. Youngstown led 7-3 heading into the final period.
Jack Galanek closed out the scoring with the lone third period goal for Muskegon at the 17:03 mark.
Youngstown outshot the Jacks 32-22. Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev started in net for Muskegon and stopped 8-of-12 shots before getting pulled. Miles Roberts came in midway through the first period in relief in net and stopped 17-of-20 shots faced.
Three of Muskegon’s four goals were scored while on the power play.
The Lumberjacks hosted their second “Watch Party” of the season at the Marine Tap Bar and about 40 Muskegon fans came to show their support. A Lumberjack jersey and two tickets to a future Lumberjacks game were raffled out during the first intermission.
