GREEN BAY, WI - Trailing 5-0 halfway through Saturday night's game the Lumberjacks picked up three straight goals looking to come back against the Gamblers. Unfortunately the third period went the way of Green Bay and the Jacks fell by a score of 8-3.

With the loss the Lumberjacks fall to 26-29-3 this season while the Gamblers pick up their 30th win and improve to 30-21-4-2 on the campaign.

The Gamblers used an explosive first period to take a 3-0 lead over the Lumberjacks heading into the first intermission. The first goal came 3:09 into the contest as Jimmy Clark sent a pass across the crease to Raimonds Vitolins who redirected the pass off his foot and into the back of the net. The second came three minutes later. Nicholas vanTassel fired a shot under the glove of Raythan Robbins finishing an odd-man rush into the Muskegon zone. The third goal came at the 7:57 mark on another odd-man rush opportunity. This time Robbins stopped the first two shots from the Gamblers, but Carter Rose followed up as the third man high and buried a rebound past Robbins for the 3 goal lead.

The second period started similarly to the first with two straight goals from the Gamblers.Amine Hajibi scored at the 4:07 mark for his first goal of his USHL career, and Bodie Nobes finished a pass in front at the 6:44 mark to make it 5-0.

From there the Lumberjacks responded in a big way scoring three straight goals to carry a two goal deficit into the third period. First, it was Nicholas Rexine that finished a net front pass from Gavin McCarthy to get the Jacks on the board at the 9:19 mark of the period.

Matthew Morden carried the puck into the offensive zone and towards the net before sending a shot towards the low far pad of Kristoffer Eberly. Despite the netminder making the save Sacha Boisvert followed up and buried the rebound for his 17th goal of the campaign and the second straight Lumberjack goal.

Gavin McCarthy won a fight to build even more momentum for Muskegon leading to another goal this time for Cody Croal. At the 15:45 mark Owen Keefe fired a shot from the point that was turned aside, but Croal found the rebound in the slot and deposited it to make it 5-3 and lessen the deficit ahead of the third period.

The third period was similar to the first with another three goals for the Gamblers.Nobes scored by firing a shot through traffic to the far side of the of the net, then finished of the hat trick with an empty net goal to make it 7-3. Hajibi scored his second goal of the game in the final minute finishing off a 2-on-1 with Misha Danylov to give Green Bay the eventual final score of 8-3.

Robbins (10-17-1) started the game for Muskegon and lasted just over 26 minutes stopping 17 of the 22 shots he faced. Sebastian Gatto entered in relief and turned aside 14 of the 16 shots fired his way. Eberly (23-12-1-4) bounced back from last nights loss and turned aside 35 of 38 shots fired by the Lumberjacks.

Next up is a home series at Trinity Health Arena for the Lumberjacks when the Madison Capitols come to town. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. EDT on Friday April 14th and Saturday the 15th. Tickets can be purchased at muskegonlumberjacks.com or you can catch the action on FloHockey and the Lumberjacks Radio Network on Mixlr.