By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks are certainly playing their best hockey of the season, especially on their home ice.
In fact, with seven more home games coming up, it is certainly looking great for Muskegon, which has won seven home games in a row at home heading into Saturday.
The Lumberjacks, who haven’t lost at Trinity Health Arena since Jan. 11, extended their home winning streak to eight games with a 6-3 win over the Green Bay Gamblers.
Muskegon is now 33-13-8 on the season, good for 74 points and currently a second-place tie in the USHL’s Eastern Conference. The Jacks are tied with the Madison Capitols and are three points behind first place Dubuque Fighting Saints with just eight games remaining and multiple games in hand.
Muskegon will look to continue its climb in the Eastern Conference on Sunday as it looks for a three-game sweep over the Gamblers. Faceoff is at 3:05 p.m.
“It was a long time coming just to get to play at home,” said Lumberjacks assistant coach CJ Kusch. “Seven of our previous nine games were on the road and we started the season 11-of-12 on the road.
“Guys are excited to be here and it’s great playing in front of these fans with the new scoreboard and all the cool stuff.”
The Lumberjacks will play their next seven games at home, where they have posted a solid 17-5-2 record.
Muskegon had six different players find the back of the net on Saturdat and the defense showed up during the third period when the Gamblers were trying to battle back.
“It wasn’t the third period that we envisioned,” Kusch said. “We will learn from it, but I thought that our depth showed tonight and we want to show it every night.”
The game remained scoreless until late in the opening period after Green Bay goaltender Roberto Henriquez misplayed the puck. David Deputy was in front of the net and found the puck and shot it home into the empty net to give the Lumberjacks a 1-0 lead at the 18:47 mark.
The Gamblers tied the game 1-1 with an early second period, power-play goal from Aidan Park at 2:01.
The Lumberjacks then went on a three unanswered goal tear to take a 4-1 lead. Tynan Lawrence scored his 23rd goal of the season at the 6:22 mark.
The Lumberjacks increased their lead to 3-1 at the 8:50 mark as Matthew Van Blaricom took a pass from Kurt Gurkan for his ninth goal of the season.
Jack Galanek added another tally at 14:49 as he whacked the puck multiple times in front of the net and finally snuck it through for his 20th of the season.
The Gamblers stopped the bleeding with a goal from Pavel Bocharov at the 17:30 mark, then they were given a power play opportunity 10 seconds later. Muskegon turned its shorthanded situation into a goal from Vaclav Nestrasil at 18:48.
The Lumberjacks, with a commanding 5-2 lead h ad a 31-15 advantage in shots through two periods.
The Gamblers cut into the deficit at the 8:03 mark of the third period with a goal from Will Zellers.
Green Bay pulled its goaltender with just over 2 minutes remaining while on the power play in hopes of edging closer to the Jacks.
But Drew Stewart found the back of the empty net at 19:12 mark that gave Muskegon the 6-3 lead.
Stephen Peck earned his 17th win of the season for the Lumberjacks with 25 saves.
“We are happy where we are at and we just want to continue to grow,” Kusch said. “We just want to focus on what we can control, and that is doing our best to get two points on a nightly basis.”
Photos by Sondra Workman.
