MUSKEGON, MI - Kicking off the final weekend of the USHL regular season the Muskegon Lumberjacks and Chicago Steel took to the ice at Trinity Health Arena on Friday night. Despite some desperation saves from Raythan Robbins the Jacks fell to the Steel by a score of 7-2.

With the loss Muskegon falls to 26-32-3 this season while the Steel clinch first place in the Eastern Conference with 83 points on a 39-17-4-1 record.

The Steel opened the scoring in the first period and took a 2-0 lead into the intermission with goals at each end of the frame. Just 1:27 into the contest Christopher Delaney carried the puck into the near side of the Lumberjacks zone and slid it in front for Charlie Major to tap past Raythan Robbins for his 6th goal of the season and a 1-0 Chicago lead.

With just 3 seconds remaining in the period the Steel doubled up for the 2-0 lead. Jayden Perron found the puck inside his own blue line and sent a pass through the neutral zone to Nicholas Molenhauer behind the Muskegon defense. Moldenhauer executed patience on the breakaway and waited out Robbins before firing a shot above the outstretched netminder.

Grayden Slipec found the back of the net to make it 3-0 for Chicago 2:41 into the middle stanza,  but the Jacks responded with 2 straight goals to bring the score back to within one. At the 8:55 mark the Lumberjacks found themselves on a 3-on-1 working into the offensive zone. Cody Croal carried the puck up the far side and into the offensive end before sliding a pass across the zone to Nicholas Rexine. The Syracuse, NY native fired a shot past Christian Manz to get the Jacks on the board.

Then, at the 10:29 mark the Jacks scored again this time thanks to a goal from Easton Young. Jacob Tersptra kept the puck in the offensive zone at the far side of the blue line and tapped it off the wall to Young. The future Augustana hockey player carried the puck down below the far side dot and ripped a shot over the shoulder of Manz for his third goal of the season and closing the deficit to 3-2.

A pair of goals in the second half of the frame regained the 3 goal lead for Chicago ahead of the second intermission. Jack Harvey finished off a pass in front from Michael Emerson at the 12:52 mark. Four minutes later at 16:19 while on the power play a beautiful passing play finished with Michael Hage at the side of the net on-timing a shot past Robbins to make it 5-2.

Chicago added two more goals in the third period to pick up the 7-2 win. Jordan Brisson scored his third goal of the season by walking across the goal line and placing a shot past the ear of Robbins at the 8:38 mark. Slipec scored his second of the game with another Chicago power play tally at the 11:36 mark by redirecting a shot from Chris Able.

Robbins (10-19-1) started the game for the Lumberjacks, turning aside 31 of 38 shots fired by the Steel including a handful of high quality chances. Manz  (21-9-2-1) made 28 saves on 30 shots sent his way by Muskegon enroute to the win.

The teams close out the weekend series and regular season tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Trinity Health Arena. It is Fan Appreciation night with a pregame tailgate open to the public from 4-6 on Western Ave. Can't make it to the game? Catch the action on FloHockey and the Lumberjacks Radio Network on Mixlr.