Muskegon Lumberjacks’ long awaited home opener results in loss to Chicago

By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks faithful waited a very long time to see their hockey team in action as they opened the season playing their first nine games away from the Trinity Health Arena.

Muskegon finally returned home on Friday to host rival Chicago Steel, looking to extend the winning streak to four wins in a row.

The contest involved a natural hat trick by Muskegon’s Drew Stewart and four combined goals in transition.

The Steel however had more of the breakaway goals, resulting in a disappointing 5-4 loss for the Lumberjacks in their home opener.

The Lumberjacks snapped their winning streak and fell to 4-3-3 on the season, good for 11 points in the USHL’s Eastern Conference standings.

Muskegon will look to bounce back on Saturday against the Steel before once again going back on the road next weekend. Faceoff is slated for 6 p.m. at Trinity Health Arena.

“It’s been a long grind on the road and it was nice to come back to our rink and our fans,” said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. “I wish we were able to give them a win, but we appreciate the support.

“We had some defensemen that made some bad decisions, but the majority of the team was playing the right way, but if you’re not completely connected, Chicago is an opportunist team and they took advantage of the mistakes.”

The Steel took advantage of a turnover in the neutral zone as Adam Valentini took the puck for a 2-on-1 break and buried the puck in the net at the 1:53 mark of the opening period to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.

Chicago increased its advantage to 2-0 as Reid Conn took a pass from behind the net and buried it home 12:01 into the first period.

The Lumberjacks had a couple of opportunities to get their first goal during the first period, but they could not find the net despite outshooting Chicago 14-7 during the first 20 minutes of play.

Both teams were able to stay out of the penalty box during the first period.

The Lumberjacks managed to storm back in the second period as Stewart had a natural hat trick, scoring three unanswered goals to propel Muskegon to a 3-2 lead.

Stewart cut the Muskegon deficit to 2-1, scoring from between the faceoff circles in front of the net off a rebound just 1:13 into the second period, he tied the game at the 5:56 mark on a shot from the right side of the net.

The game remained tied for just under 10 minutes of play before Stewart completed the natural hat trick at the 15:35 mark of the frame on an unassisted goal from close range in front of the net.

“He has been playing great hockey and I was very happy for Drew,” Burgess said. “He had so many chances and it was nice to not only get the first one from him, but to get three and it sparked us there. He is a great kid that does it the right way.”

Stewart, who was picked up from Cedar Rapids several weeks ago, scored seven goals and notched 15 assists in 53 games last season for the RoughRiders. He now has three goals and two assists in six games for the Jacks.

Muskegon maintained a 3-2 advantage heading into the final period of play while outshooting the Steel 25-18 through 40 minutes of action.

Both teams managed to stay out of the penalty box once again after two periods of play.

The Steel took advantage of another Muskegon turnover at center ice and broke out to a 2-on-0 break. Chris Reiniger scored 1:52 into the third period to tie the contest 3-3.

The first penalty occurred just shortly after as the Jacks were handed the first power play of the game, but the Jacks failed to take advantage, but Chicago did on its first man-advantage six minutes later.

It only took 12 seconds of the Steel’s first power play to retake the lead as Will Tomko found the back of the net 8:49 into the third period to give Chicago a 4-3 lead.

The Lumberjacks didn’t stay behind for long as captain David Klee found the puck near the blue line and was all alone for a breakaway goal at the 10:33 mark of the third period that tied the game.

The Steel scored the game-winner as Luke Goukler scored for Chicago at the 13:48 mark of the third period on another breakaway goal.

The Lumberjacks outshot Chicago 40-30. Muskegon goaltender Shikhabutin Gadzhiev suffered the loss in net. He stopped 25-of-30 shots.