MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks were struck by the Friday Night Curse for the fourth straight week, but this loss stung a bit more than the rest.

It happened on Fury Night, when the Jacks retired the jersey of Muskegon Fury legend Todd Robinson in front of a big crowd at Mercy Health Arena.

It also came against the first-place Chicago Steel, who arrived in town with a slight two-point lead over the Jacks in the USHL’s Eastern Conference standings, and skated off with a four-point lead.

And the game was lost in a particularly painful fashion, because the Jacks came out with a head of steam and grabbed a 2-0 lead, but ended up falling 3-2 in the first of a two-game home series against the Steel.

The hopeful news is that on the last two Saturdays, the Lumberjacks bounced back and won rematch games against their opponents, and should be fired up to do the same against Chicago.

Muskegon is now 24-13-6 on the season, good for 54 points in the standings. Chicago improved to 25-10-8 with 58 points. Third-place Dubuque lost on Friday and remained one point behind the Lumberjacks.

“Tonight was a game when we were playing for first place, and we should have been fired up and ready to go, but we didn’t have a playoff atmosphere in here today,” said Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton. “We had a good crowd in here, but we didn’t get going. We need to respond tomorrow and get better.”

The Jacks were hurt once again by penalties, which have cursed them all season.

Chicago scored its first goal late in the first period, only seven seconds after the Jacks were whistled for a penalty. Then the Steel scored the game-tying goal in the second period, only 13 seconds after the Jacks were called for another penalty.

Both power play goals came on rebounds, after the initial shot was stopped by Muskegon goalie Aleksandr Kuleshov.

The game was tight throughout the third period, but the Lumberjacks’ ability to fight for the win was hampered by two penalties, which forced them to spend six minutes trying to prevent Chicago from scoring, instead of being on the attack.

Hamilton was not happy about the penalties after the game.

“Obviously we took some undisciplined, lazy penalties at the wrong time, which gave them some momentum,” Hamilton said. “Those are lazy penalties. It‘s one thing pushing someone through the glass, it’s another to hook someone from behind. Those are lazy penalties.”

“This is the best team in the league, and they are not going to just give us two points.”

The Jacks got the big crowd fired up early in the game when leading scorer Quinn Hutson broke in alone on Chicago goalie Christian Manz and scored a breakaway goal just 1:39 into the contest.

Muskegon struck again at the 7:08 mark when Jake Braccini’s shot was initially stopped by Manz, but it somehow spun away from the goalie and ended up in the net, giving the Jacks a promising 2-0 lead.

The rest of the game didn’t go so well for the Lumberjacks.

Miller scored his goal on a power play at 16:17 of the first period, and the Jacks led 2-1 headed into the second.

Chicago’s Sam Lipken tied the game with another power play goal at 6:41 of the second period and the score was tied 2-2 after two.

Chicago completed its comeback when Adam Fantilli scored at 6:20 of the third period, giving the visitors a 3-2 lead. Muskegon pulled Kuleshov for an extra attacker with a little over a minute left in the game, but could not get the equalizer goal.

The Jacks outshot Chicago 26-21.