By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – When it came right down to it, the Muskegon Lumberjacks put as many pucks in the net as their opponent on Saturday night.

But unfortunately, the result was not what the Lumberjacks or their fans hoped for in the end. The end result was a 3-1 loss to the first-place Dubuque Fighting Saints.

The puck finds the back of the net in the third time for Muskegon, but was waived off. Photo/Sondra Workman

The Jacks trailed 2-0 late in the second period, then scored their first goal since going goalless for nearly five periods of play, to cut their deficit to a single goal.

It appeared Muskegon tied the game towards the final moments of the middle period, but the referee called off the goal and ruled Teddy Spitznagel motioned his arm towards the net illegally.

Ironically, early in the third period, while Muskegon had a two-man advantage, the exact play happened and captain Cody Croal’s goal was called off for the same reason.

The Lumberjacks didn’t get a third chance to tie the game up as the Dubuque Fighting Saints added a late empty-net goal and held onto the victory.

Muskegon is now on a three-game losing streak and is 31-20-2 on the season, good for 64 points and a tie for third place with the Youngstown Phantoms. The Lumberjacks are suddenly three points behind the second-place Green Bay Gamblers and 10 points behind the first-place Fighting Saints.

Muskegon will look to earn some precious playoff points next weekend when they host the Sioux City Musketeers on Friday and Saturday before closing out the weekend Sunday against Team USA in the game that was called off after the second period back in February.

Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess was livid with what took place Saturday night and in recent games. Burgess unloaded on the league for its handling of different situations of late.

“I am very proud of how our group responded tonight from last night going up against a very good Dubuque team,” Burgess said. “But it’s getting to the point with my frustration with the league and how every game the calls go.

Muskegon’s Cody Croal (left), Wilson Dahlhemner (10) and Xavier Veilleux. Photo/Sondra Workman

“Our opposition emails the league (Saturday) with an infraction that took place (Friday) night right in front of a referee that wasn’t even deemed a two-minute penalty, and they turned around and we got suspended.”

Burgess was referring to Joe Connor, who is third on the team with 24 goals, who was suspended one game after another top scorer, Matvei Gridin, served a separate game suspension for another incident.

“Gridin was targeted for 45 minutes by the other team and there were zero calls that went against the other team,” Burgess said about the incident that happened last week. “Matvei had to stand up for himself because he wasn’t getting protected by the officials and now, he gets suspended.

“Our guys work their (butt) off and we have a good hockey club and have to go in there on a consistent basis and tell our guys that we got screwed and it is starting to get tiresome.”

For the second straight night, the Fighting Saints opened the scoring with the lone goal of the opening period, an unassisted tally from Teddy Merrill at the 3:35 mark.

Dubuque increased its lead to 2-0 while both teams were skating a man short as Joona Vaisanen found the back of the net at the 13:16 mark of the second period.

Sacha Boisvert (9) cuts behind Dubuque goalie Kevin Reidler. Photo/Sondra Workman

The Jacks finally ended their near five-period scoring drought as David Klee scored his 13th goal of the season to cut Muskegon’s deficit to 2-1 with just under 5 minutes to play in the second period.

It looked like Muskegon tied the game at the 16:55 mark of the middle period as Spitznagel drove to the net and the puck went off his arm into the net.

The officials quickly called it a no-goal and maintained their original call after checking the video replay.

The Lumberjacks remained behind 2-1 heading into the final period.

Muskegon started the third period with a power play before the Fighting Saints were ticketed with another infraction, giving the Jacks a two-man advantage for 58 seconds.

For the second time in the game, it looked like the Lumberjacks had tied the game as Croal crashed the net at the 39-second mark and the puck went into the net.

The officials reviewed the play and determined that Croal touched the puck illegally and disallowed a second Muskegon goal.

“The call on the ice was a good goal and I didn’t see evidence for them to overturn that,” Burgess said. “I get it’s a development league for the refs too, but at some point, it is unacceptable. The margin for error against good teams is so small that the calls on the ice matter.”

Muskegon failed to connect on both power plays.

Noah Powell added an empty net goal for Dubuque with 9 seconds left in the game.

The Lumberjacks outshot Dubuque 37-28 as goalkeeper Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev played solid once again. He stopped 25-of-27 shots.