By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – The top two Eastern Conference teams of the United States Hockey League faced off at Trinity Health Arena on Friday night and the outcome was inches away from going either way.
The Muskegon Lumberjacks shot rang the post moments before the Dubuque Fighting Saints scored the game-winning goal just off the post with under two minutes to play.
Heikki Ruohonen’s game-winning goal propelled Dubuque to a 3-1 win over the Lumberjacks.
Muskegon has dropped its second-straight contest with just one goal in each game. It is now 12-5-3 on the season, good for 27 points and third place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.
Photo/Sondra Workman
The Lumberjacks will look to bounce back Saturday night with a rematch at home with first place Dubuque. Faceoff is set for 6:05 p.m.
“We hit about three posts, and they all went out,” said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. “They had one post towards the end of the game, and it went in. It was like a chess match but unfortunately, they put one more past us.”
“I told the guys there were a lot of areas that I liked,” Burgess said. “We just need to get a reset and show up tomorrow with a good attitude and pick up two points tomorrow.”
The contest was a rematch from last season’s Eastern Conference Finals, and it featured two of the top goalies in the USHL.
Dubuque’s goaltender Jan Spunar was just slightly better as he stopped 29-of-30 shots faced from the Jacks and kept his team from falling behind during the entire game.
Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev also played solid despite the losing result, stopping 29-of-31 shots before getting pulled for an extra skater late in the contest to try and score the tying goal in the final minute.
Both teams failed to score during the opening 20 minutes of play.
Photo/Sondra Workman
The Lumberjacks held 12-6 shots on goal advantage and each team played a clean period, not committing any penalties.
The first penalty of the game was called at the 4:35 mark of the second period, giving the Lumberjacks a two-minute power play.
Muskegon failed to open the scoring during the two-minute man advantage, keeping the contest scoreless near the halfway mark of regulation.
The Fighting Saints were given an opportunity to open the scoring as well with a pair of power plays just over two minutes apart from each other.
The Jacks kept Dubuque from putting the puck in the net with excellent penalty killing for four minutes of action.
Dubuque also had a break away chance with just over five minutes remaining in the second period, but Gadzhiev stuffed the puck around the goal post, keeping the score goalless late in the frame.
The Fighting Saints were also given a late second period power play but failed the score.
The game remained scoreless through 40 minutes with the Fighting Saints outshooting Muskegon 22-19 heading into the final frame of the contest.
The Fighting Saints ended the long goalless drought at the 7:52 mark of the third period on a shot from Matthew Desiderio that screened Gadzhiev to give Dubuque a 1-0 lead.
The Lumberjacks were handed their second power play of the game 10:09 into the third period and connected to tie the game 1-1 at the 11:57 mark of the third period.
Vaclav Nestrasil scored his fifth goal of the season, tapping in the rebound from the right side of the net off a shot from Carter Sanderson.
The Fighting Saints stormed back late in the game at the 18:07 mark of the third period on a goal from Heikki Ruohonen to give Dubuque the lead back.
The shot hit the post and went right in the net just moments before the Lumberjacks failed to take the lead off a shot that rang right off the right post of the Dubuque net.
The Fighting Saints sealed the win, scoring an empty-net goal with 17 seconds remaining in the game from Charlie Arend.
Dubuque outshot the Lumberjacks 32-30.
Muskegon went 1-for-2 on the power play while killing off all three of the Fighting Saints power plays.
