MUSKEGON – Jack Williams picked the perfect night to have a really big game, because the Muskegon Lumberjacks really, really needed a win.

Williams, the Lumberjacks’ captain in his third year with the team, might have had the most exciting night of his career, collecting two goals and two assists to lead Muskegon to an impressive 7-4 victory on Friday over the first-place Dubuque Fighting Saints at Mercy Health Arena.

His back-to-back goals came in the third period when the Lumberjacks were clinging to a one-goal lead. and gave the team the breathing room it needed to ice the win.

Williams also hit a milestone in the game, securing the 100th point of his career when he got his first assist of the night.

“It’s awesome, it has been a long time,” said Williams, who now has 13 goals on the season. “I went cold there for a bit, so it was really nice to get it.”

Williams’ heroics were timely, to say the least, because the Lumberjacks had lost seven of their previous 10 games and had a three-game losing streak and a four-game home losing streak.

Dubuque, the hottest team in the USHL, came in with a seven-game winning streak.

“We needed a little reward, and a big win like that can go a long way,” said Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton, whose team will have a rematch at home with Dubuque on Saturday night. “It was much needed. The guys have been putting in a lot of hard work on the details and it was nice to see them rewarded.”

“It’s huge for us,” Williams added. “We knew coming into this homestand that we had a few big games coming up with Team USA and Dubuque. Obviously last week didn’t go as we had hoped, but this week was huge for us.

“But we will start to think about the next game as soon as we leave the rink and we’ll reset for tomorrow.”

There were three other big stars for the Jacks.

Leading scorer Quinn Hutson had two goals and one assist, with both of his tallies coming on power plays.

Defenseman Jacob Guevin had three assists and tied former Lumberjacks Danil Gushchin for the all-team team assist record of 77.

Goalie Aleksandr Kuleshov also had a very strong game, on a night when he wasn’t expected to play at all.

He was injured last Friday in a game against Team USA, and Coach Mike Hamilton doubted he would be ready to take the ice this weekend.

But Kuleshov felt well enough to play and stopped 31 of 35 shots against the high-flying Fighting Saints, who pack a lot of offense on their roster.

“Sasha was able to get a practice in on Thursday, he said he felt good, and in our minds he’s our guy,” Hamilton said about Kuleshov. “Tonight he proved he was capable, especially early, until we got our wheels going a little bit. Then when we were tied they had a couple of opportunities to go up one, and they had two little flurries that he stopped that were big turning points in the game.”

The Lumberjacks, who were swept last weekend at home against Team USA, came out flying in the first period, getting a goal from Jake Braccini just 14 seconds into the contest

Dubuque answered at 16:08 of the first period with a goal from Jackson Hallum, and the score was tied 1-1 at the first intermission.

The Fighting Saints were dominant offensively in the first period, outshooting the Jacks 15-7, but Muskegon turned things around in the second frame, outshooting Dubuque 21-7.

Hutson scored his first goal on a power play at the 8:32 mark, giving the Jacks a 2-1 lead. Dubuque answered again with a goal from Connor Kurth late in the period, and the teams went to the locker rooms with a 2-2 tie.

The Lumberjacks dominated the third period and gained the victory by outscoring Dubuque 5-2.

Jake Richard started things off with a power play goal at 1:39 of the final period. Dubuque tied the score again at 4:02 with a goal from Ryan Beck, then Muskegon went ahead for good when Hutson hit his second power play goal of the night at 6:39, putting the Jacks up 4-3.

Williams scored his two goals at 12:47 and 15:40 of the third to give the Lumberjacks some breathing room. Stephen Halliday scored a late goal for Dubuque, the Muskegon’s Tyler Hotson hit an empty-netter with 1:28 left in the game.

The Lumberjacks won by taking advantage of opportunities. Dubuque was penalty-prone all night, giving Muskegon seven power play opportunities, and the Jacks cashed in with goals on three of them.

The Jacks also excelled when playing shorthanded, holding Dubuque scoreless on three power plays.

That’s a change of pace for the Jacks, who have struggled on special teams all season.

“We won the special teams battle, and that’s something that has to happen for us to go anywhere in the playoffs,” Hamilton said. “Our power play was plus three and our penalty kill was perfect, so great job by our special teams.”

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