LocalSportsJournal.com
PLYMOUTH – Two games remain in the regular season and the Muskegon Lumberjacks’ spot in the Eastern Conference standings has still not been determined.
The Lumberjacks dropped a 4-2 road decision to Team USA on Saturday night and currently are third in the standings. However, with two games remaining, Muskegon is two points behind second-place Green Bay and two points ahead of fourth-place Youngstown.
This weekend, Muskegon travels to Chicago for a pair of games against the Steel.
On Saturday night, the Jacks were tied at 2-all after two before allowing a pair of third-period goals.
Cole Eiserman opened the scoring for Team USA with a power-play goal late in the opening period.
In the second period, Muskegon tied the game on Ethan Whitcomb’s 18th goal of the season. That unassisted goal came just 1:02 in the middle period.
Kamil Bednarik gave Team USA a 2-1 lead with a goal at 5;18, but Muskegon’s Joe Connor evened the score at 9:30 on a goal assisted by Jake Toll.
The period ended in a 2-all deadlock.
Same Laurila scored his first goal of the season at 11:26 then James Hagens scored into the empty net with 2 seconds left to complete the scoring.
Muskegon goaltender Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev stopped 24 of 27 shots in net.
