By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have dealt with a lot of adversity throughout the season.

Sunday was no different.

Muskegon’s Easton Young. Photo/Sondra Workman

Muskegon entered the second game of the best-of-five Eastern Conference Semifinals needing a win to tie the series and avoid getting pushed to the brink of elimination.

After toughing out a scoreless opening period, the Lumberjacks went on to defeat the Green Bay Gamblers 4-1 and indeed evened the series at a game apiece. Sunday’s game was played at Trinity Health Arena.

The site now shifts to Green Bay for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

A split in the next two games will result in a winner-take-all scenario on Friday in Muskegon.

“I think what makes our group special is they just fight through adversity consistently,” said Lumberjacks’ assistant coach C.J. Kusch. “They are so close, and they love each other so much that they will do anything to get the outcome that they desire. It’s great to see them bounce back.”

It looked like the Jacks were going to open the scoring with an early goal 3:10 into the contest.

Matvei Gridin put the puck into the net with an unassisted goal, but it was taken away due to a late-called penalty on Lumberjack goaltender Shikhabudtin Gadzhiev for slashing.

The Lumberjacks managed to kill off the penalty to keep the contest scoreless.

The game remained scoreless heading into the first intermission with Green Bay outshooting the Lumberjacks 8-5.

Matvei Gridin controls the puck for Muskegon. Photo/Sondra Workman

“We liked what we did during the first period,” Kusch said. “We wanted to get more shots to the net and our leadership group had a good push.”

The Lumberjacks finally ended the scoreless tie while both teams were a man short at the 7:28 mark of the second period.

Cody Croal hustled down the right side of the ice after the puck and he managed to swipe the puck past Green Bay goaltender Gavin Moffatt to give Muskegon the 1-0 lead.

“He is the heartbeat of the team,” Kusch said about Croal. “The guys look up to him and he is a fantastic leader.”

The Lumberjacks added to their lead 10:48 into the second period as Teddy Spitznagel took a pass right in front of the net and tapped it home to make it 2-0.

Solovey increased the Lumberjacks’ lead to 3-0 with his second goal of the series at the 15:57 mark. He got a piece of the puck in front of the net off a shot from the blue line by Xavier Veilleux.

Green Bay stopped the bleeding with a goal from Lev Katzin 17:26 into the second period to cut the Lumberjacks lead to 3-1.

Muskegon entered the second intermission holding onto a two-goal lead while outshooting the Gamblers 21-13.

The Lumberjacks nursed their two-goal lead until the 14:09 mark of the third period when Joe Connor scored his first goal of the playoffs for Muskegon to make it 4-1.

Croal paced the Jacks with a goal and two assists, while Solovey added a goal and an assist. Klee and Veilleux each chipped in with two assists.

“I feel like we have overcome a lot of adversity this year,” Croal said. “A call or bounce doesn’t go our way and we always find a way to get it back. It is something special about our group.”

The Lumberjacks outshot Green Bay 26-23 as Gadzhiev earned his first USHL playoff win. He stopped 22 shots.