YOUNGSTOWN, OH - A name Muskegon Lumberjacks fans should learn is Teddy Spitznagel. The young player scored his first career USHL goal on Saturday night, but in the end the Lumberjacks fell to the Phantoms 7-3 to close the weekend series.

With the loss the Jacks fall to 25-27-3 this season, but remain in the hunt for the playoffs. Youngstown improves to 34-17-4-1 with a chance of moving into first place of the USHL Eastern Conference depending on other scores around the league.

Last night the teams skated the opening period without either squad finding the back of the net. Tonight goals came in bunches in the opening frame with the Phantoms carrying a 5-2 lead into the first intermission.

Muskegon took a 1-0 lead 5:24 into the contest thanks to an Ethan Whitcomb tally. Sacha Boisvert carried the puck towards the net from the left side corner and fired a shot that was turned aside by Jacob Fowler. Whitcomb was in the right spot to corral the rebound and send it to the back of the net giving the Jacks the lead, and extending his point streak to 5 games.

Under two minutes later the Jacks extended the lead on the back of Teddy Spitznagel's first career USHL goal.This time Ethan Fredericks and Jacob Terpstra worked together to get the puck to the net front where again Fowler turned aside the first shot. The puck popped to the other side of the crease and the stick of Spitznagel for the New York native to bang home.

The next five goals belonged to the home team. First, at 8:23 Shane Lachance buried a rebound in front of Raythan Robbins. Matthew Perkins finished a two-on-one opportunity thanks to a cross ice pass from Kenta Isogai at the 11:11 mark. A pair of power play goals on a 4 minute double minor took and extended the lead for Youngstown. William Whitelaw scored the first. Justin Varner the second. With 30 seconds left in the period Whitelaw scored his second goal of the period to make it a 3 goal game after 20 minutes of play.

Muskegon scored first in the second period at the 2:25 mark. Whitcomb carried the puck into the offensive zone on the right side looking to center it towards Buss in front of the net. The puck went off a defender and to the stick of Nathan McBrayer at the blue line who fed it across the zone to Gavin Mcarthy. The future Boston Terrier held the puck towards the top of the circle and fired a shot off the crossbar and into the back of the net for his second goal of the weekend, seventh of the season.

Two goals between the second and third periods extended the Youngstown lead to 7-3 the eventual final score. First with 42 seconds left in the second period Andrew Centrella finished an area pass in front of Robbins that was sent into the slot by Tory Pitner. The lone goal of the third period came at the 17:26 mark for Jake Rozzi on an empty net for the Lumberjacks.

Robbins (9-15-1) recorded another large amount of saves in the loss stopping 37 of the 43 shots he faced. After not playing last night Fowler (24-9-3-1) got the start and lifted the Phantoms to the win stopping 27 of the Lumberjacks 30 shots.

Next up for the Lumberjacks is the final road trip of the season with a stop in Dubuque on Thursday April 6th before heading to Green Bay for two games on April 7th and 8th. You can catch the action on FloHockey the official video streaming partner of the USHL, and the Lumberjacks Radio Network on Mixlr.