LocalSportsJournal.com
CEDAR RAPIDS, Ia. – The Muskegon Lumberjacks are gathering up steam before the start of the Clark Cup playoffs.
On Friday night, the Lumberjacks defeated the Cedar Rapids Roughriders 4-1 in a game played at ImOn Ice Arena in Cedar Rapids. The game was witnessed by 2,026 spectators. The teams will complete their two-game weekend series on Saturday night.
On Friday night, the Jacks got off to an early start when Matvei Gridin scored his 34th goal of the season just 1:18 into the contest.
The lead grew to 3-0 in the second period on goals by Sacha Boisvert at 5:03 and Ty Hendricks at 7:28. It was Boisvert’s 34th of the season and Henricks’ 17th.
In the third period, the Roughriders’ Haeden Ellis scored his first goal of the season to ruin the shutout by Muskegon goaltender Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev. That game came with 5:22 remaining in the third period.
Justin Solovey capped the game’s scoring at 17:57 with an empty-net goal for the Lumberjacks.
Gadzheiv finished with 31 saves.
Muskegon (35-20-1-1) is in third place in the Eastern Conference standings, one point behind second-place Green Bay, which does have one game in hand on the Lumberjacks.
