MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have snapped out of their slump and are winning again, at the time of year when a hot streak can carry a team a long way.
That’s very good news for fans who were concerned when the Jacks’ season took a bad turn recently, with 7 losses in 10 games following a two-month hot streak.
The turnaround began last weekend when the Jacks swept two games from a very good Dubuque squad, and they followed that up with an impressive 5-2 victory over the Green Bay Gamblers on Friday night at Mercy Health Arena.
It may be too early to say that the Lumberjacks are peaking at the perfect time for the playoffs, because there is still one month and 11 games remaining in the regular season.
But they certainly look primed to face their more immediate challenge – 9 road games in their final 10 regular season games – beginning after Saturday night’s home rematch with Green Bay.
[1]The Lumberjacks improved to 28-17-6 on the season. Green Bay fell to 21-27-3.
“It’s absolutely the right time to get hot,” said Lumberjacks coach Mike Hamilton. “It’s been a roller coaster season, with our highs and our lows. We are just hoping that we can keep building on the positives.”
The night was special for Hamilton, who celebrated his 49th birthday with his team’s third straight win.
It was also a big evening for Lumberjacks defenseman Jacob Guevin, who collected one assist, the 78th of his career, which made him the team’s all-time assist leader.
Guevin broke the record previously held by former Lumberjack Danil Gushchin.
[2]“He keeps breaking records after records, and he hasn’t been here a long time,” Hamilton said. “He is a special hockey player who continues to get better and better.”
The final score was not reflective of most of the game, because the Lumberjacks took their time taking control.
They got off to a quick start when forward Joey Larson scored just 1:36 into the game, after taking a nice centering pass from Jack Williams.
Green Bay pulled even at 1:42 of the second period when Cam Lund found the net, and the teams were tied 1-1 at the second intermission.
The interesting stuff all came in the third period, when the Lumberjacks exploded for four goals.
It started at the 51 second mark of the period, when Williams scored on a strange play, after a Green Bay player appeared to try to clear the puck away from the goal crease, but it went up in the air and Williams swatted it into the net before it came down.
[3]Green Bay had a golden opportunity to tie the score at the 2:34 mark when Muskegon’s Gavin McCarthy was called for slashing Green Bay’s Lund from behind when he had a breakaway, and Lund was awarded a penalty shot.
Lumberjacks goalie Aleksandr Kuleshov was up to the challenge, easily stopping Lund’s one-on-one shot and preserving Muskegon’s lead.
Kuleshov ended up stopping 25 of 27 Green Bay shots to collect the win.
“Sasha didn’t win the game, but he helped win the game by making key saves at key times, and that’s what we ask of our goaltender,” Hamilton said about Kuleshov.
The Jacks took control after the failed penalty shot, collecting goals from Nathan McBrayer at the 2:57 mark, Tyler Dunbar at 8:25 and Owen Mehlenbacher at 15:23.
Green Bay got a late goal from Alex Servagno to round out the scoring.
Williams had two assists on the night to go with his goal. Jake Braccini also had two assists for the Lumberjacks.