MUSKEGON – Friday night's game brought a low scoring affair to the fans at Trinity Health Arena, but the Back end of the weekend series between the Muskegon Lumberjacks (8-6-1-1, 18 pts) and the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders (8-6-1-1, 18 pts) on Saturday night had fans on the edge of their seats as the Jacks climb back from an early deficit. Despite the strong push at the end a late goal against meant another loss for the Jacks 4-3.
Cedar Rapids opened the scoring in the first period 6:24 into the contest when Jack Larrigan carried the puck up the far side wall, around the top of the circle, and into the slot before sending a shot to the low near side corner of the net.
A couple of minutes later while on the power play the RoughRiders doubled up the score on a shot from the blue line off the stick of Joel Kjellberg that made its way through traffic. Another power play goal game at the 13:12 mark this time a long shot from Amine Hajibi was deflected in front by Aiden Welch and into the back of the net.
Muskegon was able to find the back of the net in the second period to cut the deficit down to just two goals before the second intermission.
Justin Solovey (Holmdel, NJ) sent the puck to the area in front of the Cedar Rapids net, and
David Klee (Castle Rock, CO) won a battle to force the puck to the back of the net at the 11:06 mark.
In the third period the Lumberjacks held the majority of the momentum and scored another two goals to tie the game up at 3 apiece. First, at the 3:13 mark
Filip Nordberg (Stockholm, SWE) sent the puck out of the Jacks zone and down the ice. A Cedar Rapids Defender wasn't able to stop it, but
Joe Connor (Amherst, NH) was. Connor took the puck in on a breakaway and used his back hand to get the Jacks back to within one.
While killing a penalty the Jacks struck again to tie the game at the 4:58 mark.
Xavier Veilleux (L'Ancienne-Lorrette, QC, CAN) carried the puck into the offensive zone, and ripped a shot from the middle of the slot to the top portion of the net for his first career USHL goal.
Despite the comeback effort the Jacks ended up falling in the end after Hajibi found the back of the net late in regulation to give Cedar Rapids the eventual winning score of 4-3.
Lukas Swedin (Stockholm, SWE) started the game for Muskegon, but lasted just partially through the first period with little support in front of him.
Paxton Geisel (Estevan, SK, CAN) (5-2-0-1) earned the loss despite allowing just one goal on 13 shots against. Rudy Guimond (5-4-1-1) earned the win stopping 30 of the 33 shots fired by the Lumberjacks.
The Jacks are back in action next weekend on the road for a two game series against the Tri-City Storm on Friday and Saturday. Catch the action on the official live stream partner of the USHL, FloHockey. A free radio stream is also available on the Lumberjacks Hockey Network on Mixlr.
Follow the Jacks on social media @muskegonjacks for game updates and more!
