By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks need to finish strong the remainder of the regular season if they want to open the post season at friendly Trinity Health Arena.
Muskegon has struggled recently, losing four straight games at home and five of the last seven overall, giving a little bit of uncertainty of where the Jacks will finish in the conference.
The Lumberjacks did everything to end the potential doubt and slide, dominating the puck in a lopsided advantage in shots on goal and an important 4-1 win over the Chicago Steel on Friday night.
The Steel, who is the team outside the playoff picture, is now nine points behind Muskegon with eight games remaining for both teams.
The top two teams in each conference receive a first-round bye, while the third- and fourth-place teams host the fifth- and sixth-place squads in a best-of-three round series with all games played at the higher seed’s venue.
“If we play like we did during these 60 minutes, we are going to like our result,” said Lumberjacks coach Colten St. Clair. “We need to take it one day at a time but be very urgent with it and make every day count.”
Muskegon dominated the shots on goal by outshooting the Steel 52-17. Goaltender Carl Axelsson earned his 25th win of the season for the Lumberjacks, stopping 16 of 17 shots.
“We needed to get hungrier offensively at times,” St. Clair said. “Once we got up, we wanted to make sure we kept that lead. We challenged the group in the third period that we didn’t need any more offense. We just needed to play the right way to finish it.”
The Lumberjacks also were strong in the special team department, scoring a goal while both shorthanded and on the power play, while also killing off four of five Chicago power plays.
“Overall, we were plus-one on our special teams,” St. Clair said. “I think we also outshot them while we were on our penalty kill.”
3-sport athletes on the big screen: Taryn Gill from Reeths-Puffer and Fruitport’s Jackson Modrzejewski attended the game as part of a LSJ’s Varsity Blues Sports Awards Show on March 7. As 3-sport athletes, Taryn does sideline cheer, competitive cheer, and track. Jackson does football, wrestling, and track.
It only took the Lumberjacks 27 seconds to open the scoring as Melvin Novotny found the back of the net to give Muskegon the early 1-0 advantage. Carter Sanderson notched the lone assist on Novotny’s 20th goal of the season.
It didn’t take long for the Steel to tie up the game, as they took advantage of a too many men on the ice penalty by Muskegon.
Chicago’s Timothy Kazda scored an unassisted power-play goal 3:58 into the first period to tie the game 1-all.
It remained tied 1-1 with the Lumberjacks dominating the Steel.
Muskegon thought it retook the lead with a goal at the 15:49 mark of the first period from Novotny, but it was quickly called off due to goaltender interference and the play never went to a replay review.
The Lumberjacks had a commanding 20-3 advantage in the shots on goal department, but the game was tied.
The Steel received the first power play of the second period after both teams went more than four minutes without producing a shot on goal.
But Chicago failed to take advantage of the power play, while the Lumberjacks found the back of the net shorthanded.
Sanderson’s 15th goal of the season gave the Jacks a 2-1 lead.
The Lumberjacks extended the lead to 3-1 with a goal from Nathan Larioza when in transition at the 13:38 mark. Chuck Blanchard and Jack Christ earned assists on the goal.
Muskegon continued to pour it on by taking advantage of a Steel penalty with a power-play goal from Drew Stewart off a shot from the top of the offensive zone.
Stewart’s 25th goal of the season was assisted by Novotny and Niles Benson to give the Jacks a solid 4-1 advantage late in the second period at the 15:33 mark.
The Jacks led 4-1 heading into the third period while outshooting Chicago 33-11 through 40 minutes of action.
The Steel couldn’t break the Jacks’ penalty kill at the 8:31 and 11:27 marks of the third period.
Muskegon managed to kill both man advantages, maintaining the three-goal lead heading towards the end of the contest.
Muskegon is now 33-20-1, good for 67 points and fourth place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.
The Jacks will look to take another step closer to clinching a Clark Cup playoff spot on Saturday with a road win over Chicago. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. from the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Illinois.
