By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – When you score three goals in a span of 60 seconds, there is a great chance that you will end up winning the game.
The Muskegon Lumberjacks did that on Saturday night as Cooper Pierson scored twice and Matthew Van Blaricom once during the second period.
The three-goal barrage helped the Lumberjacks complete the weekend sweep over the Omaha Lancers as Muskegon prevailed 5-3 at the Trinity Health Arena.
The Lumberjacks have been on a tear of late, winning five straight contests to improve to 9-3-3 on the season, good for 21 points and currently second place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.
Muskegon will travel to Sioux City to play the Musketeers next weekend starting Friday at 8:05 p.m. The Jacks will return home the following weekend to play the Sioux Falls Stampede on Nov. 22-23.
“We had a game plan and the guys executed,” said Lumberjacks assistant coach CJ Kusch. “We felt that if we could drive pucks to the net, we knew that good things were going to happen.
“It was nice to see, and the guys deserve it because they put the work into it.”
The Lumberjacks opened the scoring while on the power play as Jack Galanek took a pass from Xavier Veilleux in front of the net and fired it home at the 8:02 mark of the first period.
The Lumberjacks had an opportunity to extend their lead as both teams were ticketed with penalties. Muskegon had a two-minute penalty while the Lancers had a five-minute infraction that gave the Jacks three minutes of power-play time. The Lumberjacks failed to connect as they remained ahead 1-0 through one period of play while having a commanding 15-2 advantage in shots on goal.
Muskegon exploded for three goals in just one minute near the midway point of the second period.
Cooper Pierson found the back of the net at the 10:19 mark for his second goal of the season, then Matthew Van Blaricom scored just under a minute later 11:08 into the frame with his third of the year. Pierson added his second of the contest exactly one minute after his first of the night to give the Lumberjacks a sudden 4-0 lead.
“A cool part of our team is everybody can contribute,” Kusch said. “Pierson works so hard during the games and practices and it’s great that he got rewarded.”
The Lancers finally responded 15:23 in the second period as Zach Wooten scored his first career USHL goal to cut Muskegon’s lead to 4-1.
Omaha then took advantage of a late Lumberjacks penalty to cut the lead to 4-2 with Wooten’s second goal of the game at the 17:52 mark.
The Lumberjacks matched the Omaha power play goal with one of their own with just 48 seconds left in the second period. Vaclav Nestrasil found the back of the net for his fourth of the season on a rebound from the side of the net to give Muskegon the 5-2 advantage heading into the third period.
The Lancers inched a little closer with a goal from Hunter Ramos at the 3:11 mark of the third period to cut the advantage to 5-3.
Omaha continued to pressure the Lumberjacks during the final 10 minutes of play, but failed to add another goal.
The Lumberjacks killed off a major penalty in the final three minutes of the contest to help seal the two-goal win.
The Jacks outshot Omaha 39-25 as Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev stopped 22-of-25 shots and posted the victory in net for Muskegon.
Muskegon went 2-for-5 on its power play while killing 2-of-3 Lancer power plays.
“The penalty kill has been great this season,” Kusch said. “The Lancers are a tough power-play unit to go up against. They are a heavy shot volume team and you must sacrifice the body and the guys did well doing that tonight.”
