ROCHESTER, NY – The 2023 American Cup Powered by Wegman's kicked off on Thursday night in a big way for the Muskegon Lumberjacks (12-7-1-1, 26 pts.) with a 6-2 win over the Youngstown Phantoms (13-5-2-0, 28 pts.)
Muskegon opened the scoring 4:17 into the contest thanks to a goal from
Cooper Pierson (Zionsville, IN).
Teddy Spitznagel (New York, NY) fired a shot that went off the back wall and popped out to the side of the net.
Jack Galanek (Hopkinton, MA) was there to center the puck for Pierson to tap to the back of the net to make it 1-0.
The Jacks doubled their lead with an unassisted goal from
Cody Croal (North Branch, MN). After getting the puck on the near side of the offensive zone Croal lowered his shoulder and cut below the circle and towards the net. His first attempt was shut down, but Croal followed his rebound and forced it past the net minder.
Before the end of the first period with just 42 seconds until the intermission Muskegon added another goal to make it 3-0.
Sacha Boisvert (Trois-Rivieres, QC, CAN) carried the puck into offensive zone on the near side while on a 2-on-1 rush with
Matvei Gridin (Kurgan, RUS). Boisvert moved towards the net and waited a moment before sliding the puck backdoor for Gridin to hammer home.
The second period was just as dominate for the Jacks with another two goals to make it 5-0 ahead of the third period.
David Klee (Castle Rock, CO) scored first at the 14:26 mark by converting a breakaway started by a pass from
Ethan Whitcomb (St. Catherines, ON, CAN). Then, again in the final minute of the period with just 9 seconds to play Muskegon scored again. The second goal of the game for Croal was a one-timer set up by Gridin who caused a turnover deep in the Youngstown zone.
Youngstown found the back of the net a couple times in the third period with a Jacks goal in between. Andrew Strathman left the penalty box and got a stretch pass that sprung him on a breakaway at the 2:08 mark. While on a 5-on-3 power play Galanek scored to make it 6-1, and Miles Gunty scored in the final moments of the game to make it 6-2.
The Lumberjacks started
Lukas Swedin (Stockholm, SWE) (4-2-1-0) who made 25 saves on 27 shots against. Owen Bartoszkiewicz (10-2-1-0) lasted the first 40 minutes allowing 5 goals on 10 shots in the losing effort.
The teams close out the American Cup tomorrow night at 6:30 pm. Catch the action on the official live stream partner of the USHL FloHockey.
