By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks didn’t want their fan base to wait too long to see them win on home ice.

The Jacks, who opened the season playing nine straight games away from Muskegon, suffered a disappointing setback on Friday night.

Muskegon had another chance to get the first home win of the season on Saturday night before once again hitting the road next weekend.

The Lumberjacks were successful in doing so as strong defensive play led to a 4-1 win over the Chicago Steel at Trinity Health Arena. Muskegon improves to 5-3-3 on the season, good for 13 points and third place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.

The Lumberjacks will return to action next Friday and Saturday night as they will travel to face the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Both games are currently slated to start at 8:05 p.m.

Muskegon goaltender Stephen Peck was solid all night long and earned his first victory of the season. He nearly picked up a shutout as the Jacks held Chicago scoreless through nearly 55 minutes of action.

Muskegon’s Xavier Veilleux with the puck. Photo/Sondra Workman

“It was an incredible feeling getting the win,” said Peck, who also earned a win last season for the Jacks. “The whole team has been working hard over the last few months and it was nice to get a more dominating win tonight. We have a young core, but we are very mature as a team, and everybody is playing their part and we put in the work every single day.”

The Lumberjacks, who only had one shutout as a team during the regular season last year, have already had two this season and almost a third on Saturday night.

“We have two great goaltenders and a really mature defensive group,” said Lumberjacks assistant coach Adam Morrison. “They put the team first and not put them in spots where we must keep chasing the game. Peck is calm and composed and he does a good job covering up pucks not allowing the other team to get rebounds.”

The Jacks opened the scoring with the lone first period goal 8:28 into the frame as Carter Sanderson took a pass from Ethan Drabicki at the top of the faceoff circles and snapped it home to give Muskegon a 1-0 lead. Danny Klaers also was credited with an assist on the Lumberjacks’ first goal.

The Steel had a couple of chances to tie up the contest with power play chances 12:05 into the first period and 15:37 in the frame. Muskegon managed to kill off both penalties to remain ahead 1-0 through 20 minutes of play.

The Lumberjacks had 11-10 shots on goal advantage heading into the second period.

Muskegon went on its first power play early in the second period and connected to take a two-goal advantage. David Klee scored on the man advantage at the 4:53 mark to give the Jacks a 2-0 lead. Klee’s power-play goal was his fifth of the season and was assisted by Luka Radivojevic and Cooper Pierson.

Muskegon goalie Stephen Peck makes the save. Photo/Sondra Workman

The Lumberjacks just missed scoring on a second straight power play as Vaclav Nestrasil found the back of the net 12:58 into the second period just three seconds after the man advantage expired. Nestrasil’s second goal of the season that gave Muskegon a 3-0 lead was assisted by Xavier Veilleux and Klaers.

There was a flurry off penalties on both sides throughout the rest of the second period, but the game remained 3-0 in favor of the Lumberjacks heading into the final period.

Muskegon outshot the Steel in the second period 19-5 to extend its shot advantage to 30-15.

The Steel finally ended the shutout bid with a goal from Teddy Mutryn at the 14:53 mark of the third period.

Chicago pulled its goaltender with just under two minutes in regulation to try to cut into the Lumberjacks two-goal lead.

The decision backfired as Muskegon scored on an empty-net goal from Nestrasil with 54 seconds left to extend the lead to 4-1 and seal the Lumberjacks first home win of the season.

The Lumberjacks outshot Chicago 38-24 as Peck stopped 23-of-24 shots faced.