MUSKEGON, MI – Heading into Thursday night the Muskegon Lumberjacks needed to win three straight games in order to move on to the 2024 Clark Cup Championship. Step one was game three of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Dubuque Fighting Saints, but the result wouldn't go the way of the Jacks and the season came to a close with the 4—0 loss.
Dubuque opened the scoring halfway through the contest when they found themselves on a power play 7:56 into the second period. Lucas St. Louis fired a shot from the near side circle that bounced off a Jacks defenseman and into the empty net. Joona Vaisanen and Juraj Pekarcik picked up the assists on the goal.
A few moments later at the 12:09 mark the Saints doubled their lead with the first goal of the game for Josh Giuliani. A strong shift from the Dubuque fourth line saw the Jacks pinned in their own zone and Giuliani burry an opportunity with help from Colin Frank and Teddy Merrill.
In the third period the Fighting Saints opened the scoring again, and again it was Giuliani finding the back of the net at the 8:09 mark. Merrill got the puck to Giuliani at the top of the near side circle and his shot was able to beat the Jacks netminder to make it 3-0 for his team.
Two and a half minutes later Gavin Cornforth found the back of the net to make it 4-0 in favor of Dubuque and put the game out of reach for the Lumberjacks.
Shikhabudtin Gadzhiev (Makhachkala, RUS) (3-4-1-0) did the best he could to keep the Jacks in the game, but the stellar performance from Kevin Reidler (6-1-0-0) hindered the Jacks ability to help Gadzhiev on the other end of the ice. Reidler stopped all 21 shots he faced for his 3
rd shutout of the post season.
While the season has officially come to a close there is still an offseason full of activities starting with the USHL Draft starting with Phase I this Monday, April 6
th, and Phase II the following day. Follow along social media @muskegonjacks on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) as well as muskegonlumberjacks.com as the Jacks welcome the next generation of hockey players in Muskegon.
Did you know we moved? While renovations are underway at Trinity Health Arena, the Lumberjacks Business Office has temporarily moved to 700 Terrace Point Road. You can still reach the office by calling (231)799-7000, and by email.
