This game recap was written by Dave Hart of the Local Sports Journal. For more of Hart's coverage of the Jacks visit localsportsjournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have a very promising new player on the roster, and he very much showed his upside on Friday night.

The Lumberjacks announced on Tuesday that they were adding forward Ivan Ryabkin from Moscow Dynamo squad in Russia.

Ryabkin, who had his best season last year, scoring 24 goals and picking up 34 assists in 44 games for Moscow, is projected to be a first-rounder and even possibly a top-10 pick in the 2025 NHL draft this summer.

He helped the Jacks in his debut by scoring two goals, including the game-tying goal to force overtime to help Muskegon earn another important point in the standings.
Muskegon fell just short in the end as it lost to an always tough Under-18 Team USA squad 4-3 in a shootout at Trinity Health Arena.

It was the first loss at home for the Lumberjacks since November 29^th when they fell to Dubuque.

Muskegon is now 18-7-2-3 on the season, good for 41 points and currently the top spot in both the Eastern Conference and the USHL.

The standings are currently a little tight as Dubuque, Sioux Falls and Fargo each are one point behind the Lumberjacks.

Muskegon will look to bounce back and earn a three-point weekend when it hosts the Under-17 Team USA squad on Saturday night. Faceoff is slated for 6:10 p.m.

"He just got here yesterday and had to turn around with the jet lag and all the noise going on around him and he just went out there and scored a couple of goals," said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. "It was nice for him to get that first one out of the way and we are thrilled to have him.

"These are big points, and this one point could be a difference and we showed a lot of character as a team to keep pushing and hopefully we can use it for momentum tomorrow night."

The Lumberjacks opened the scoring 17:08 into the first period on a shot by Vaclav Nestrasil that appeared to be just wide off the post at first. The shot went under review, and it was determined that the puck crossed the goal line, resulting in the goal to give Muskegon the 1-0 lead.

Team USA responded with a late power play goal at the 19:25 mark of the opening period from Jacob Kuasnicka to tie the contest.

The game remained tied at 1-1 heading into the second period with Team USA out shooting the Jacks 14-8.

Team USA took a 2-1 lead at the 8:56 mark of the second period as Kuasnicka snuck the puck under a sprawling Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev.

The Under-18 squad added another goal 11:40 into the second period off the stick of Will Moore to increase the deficit to 3-1 for the Lumberjacks.

Team USA remained ahead of the Jacks 3-1 heading into the final period while out shooting Muskegon 23-17 through 40 minutes of play.


Ryabkin scored his first goal as a member of the Lumberjacks 8:56 into the third period to cut Muskegon's deficit in half as he took a pass right in front of the net and snapped it home.

The game remained 3-2 in favor of Team USA late in the contest.

The Jacks pulled Gadzhiev from the net with 1:43 left for an extra attacker to try to score the equalizer.

Ryabkin continued his amazing debut by scoring a goal on a wrist shot from the near boards that found a way past Team USA goalie Harrison Boettiger to tie the game and force overtime. The game tying goal was at the 18:32 mark of the third period.

Team USA had a 35-27 advantage in shots on goal during regulation time.

The five-minute overtime ended scoreless, sending the contest to a three-round shootout.

Team USA outscored the Jacks 2-1 during the shootout as Drew Schock IV and Cole McKinney found the back of the net, while Matthew Van Blaricom scored for Muskegon. Gadzhiev stopped 36-of-39 shots faced as Team USA had a 39-29 advantage over the Lumberjacks in the shots on goal department.