They say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and that’s certainly the case in sports.
The Muskegon Lumberjacks know that all too well after suffering a pair of painful one-goal losses in their first two games this weekend.
On Friday the Jacks fell to Dubuque 4-3 after leading on three different occasions. On Saturday their frustration continued whey lost to Cedar Rapids 6-5 after overcoming a two-goal deficit and tying the game in the third period.
Luckily Youngstown also lost for the second straight night, so Muskegon, now 29-22-6, remains in third place, one point ahead of the Phantoms in the USHL Eastern Conference standings.
The Lumberjacks, who have five games remaining in the regular season, will close out their long weekend with a game in Green Bay on Sunday afternoon.
The game was tied 2-2 after one period, with Muskegon getting a pair of goals from Owen Mehlenbacher and Cedar Rapids countering with goals from Conor Lovett and Zaccharya Wisdom.
The second period went badly for the Lumberjacks, who were outscored 3-1. Andy Moore found the net twice for the Roughriders and Brendan Fitzgerald scored once. Noah Ellis found the mark for Muskegon, which trailed 5-3 headed into the third period.
Joey Larson and Jacob Guevin both scored for the Jacks early in the third to tie the game, but Cedar Rapids’ Adam Flammang scored the game-winner at the 13:49 mark.
Goalie Aleksandr Kuleshov started for Muskegon but came out at the 6:26 mark of the second period after stopping 10 of 14 shots. Chase Clark played the rest of the game and stopped 11 of 13 shots.
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