MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks’ long road trip is just about over, they have secured third place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference, and the playoffs are less than a week away.
The best news is that the Jacks are heading into a very busy next week with a bit of momentum, after traveling to Plymouth, Michigan last weekend and getting a pair of wins over the Team USA 17-Undere squad, 5-4 and 6-2.
Jake Richard scored two goals to lead the attack on Friday, including the game winner, while six different Lumberjacks found the net on Saturday.
The victories left the Lumberjacks with a 4-4 record in their exhausting month-long road swing, with one road game left to play on Friday night in Chicago against the first-place Steel.
The Lumberjacks and Steel will return to Muskegon to play on Saturday night in the final game of the regular season. The playoffs will begin for the Lumberjacks at home on Monday.
“That was a huge weekend for us,” said Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton about getting the two wins in Plymouth. “We had an opportunity to wrap up the third seed and home ice in the playoffs and we did it. We went a day early, we had good playoff-like focus, and we made sure we were locked and loaded and ready to go.
“I thought in each game we still had some lapses, but they were the most complete games we have played in a while.”
This weekend’s games, the last two of the regular season, will have different levels of importance for the Lumberjacks and Chicago.
The Steel will enter the weekend with plenty of incentive, because they are battling Dubuque right down to the wire for the Eastern Conference championship, which comes with home-ice advantage throughout the conference playoffs.
Chicago has 85 points in the standings while Dubuque has 83. Each team has two regular season games left, and a win is worth two points, so the Steel will be pushing hard to beat the Jacks.
The games are of far less importance for Muskegon, because the Jacks have nothing to gain from winning, and a lot to lose if any players were injured over the final two meaningless games.
Hamilton said he plans to give most of the players one night off – some on Friday and others on Saturday – and also use a number of young affiliate players (akin to minor leaguers in pro hockey) against Chicago.
That means Muskegon could easily lose one or both games this weekend, but the coach is not particularly concerned.
“There’s zero importance to it,” Hamilton said. “We just want everybody feeling ready and confident going into Monday’s first playoff game. It’s been a long month, as far as the number of games played and all the travel, so I think giving all the guys one night off will be beneficial.”
[1]Playoffs begin at home on Monday – against someone
The Lumberjacks know one thing for sure – they will be hosting a first-round playoff series early next week, against either Cedar Rapids or the Team USA Under-17 squad.
The quick three-game series will be on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (if necessary) at Mercy Health Arena. All three games are scheduled for 7 p.m.
Cedar Rapids and the Under-17s are in a tight battle for the sixth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and the right to play Muskegon in the first round. Cedar Rapids has 59 points in the standings while the 17-Unders have 58.
Cedar Rapids will play a pair of games against second-place Dubuque this weekend, which will be a tough assignment, since the Fighting Saints are only two points behind Chicago in the battle for the Eastern Conference championship and will probably be fighting hard to win.
The Under-17s will have the easier assignment, playing two against Youngstown, which has already wrapped up fourth place in the Eastern Conference and, like Muskegon, has nothing to gain or lose from the two remaining regular season games.
[2]Jake Richard on fire
One player who could really come in handy as the Jacks try to win their first Clark Cup in franchise history is rookie forward Jake Richard, who has been more than living up to his advance hype recently.
Richard has been on fire over the past two months, totaling six goals and 13 assists in March and April.
His goals tend to be very important ones.
On March 4, he scored the game-winning goal in overtime in a 5-4 victory over Cedar Rapids. On April 10 he scored the game winner at 13:52 of the third period in a 3-2 victory over Green Bay. Last Friday he scored the game winner at 16:50 of the third period in a 5-4 win over Team USA.
Early in the season the coaches were raving about Richard’s immense natural talent and offensive abilities, but that was difficult for fans to recognize for a while because he didn’t score a goal until December.
But he’s earned more ice time as the season has gone by, and currently has 16 goals and 28 assists for 44 points.
“He’s a gamer,” Hamilton said about Richard. “We as a staff get to watch him every day in practice and he’s a pure goal scorer. He had a lot to learn about other aspects of the game, and that’s what he’s done. He has spent extra time on the ice practicing, in the weight room, and watching videos. His improvement has come because he’s been committed to it.
“He has 44 points, which for a first-year guy in this league is pretty amazing. It almost scares you. We get calls from NHL teams quite a bit asking about him.”
The Lumberjacks will be looking for big things from Richard as they try to make a run in the upcoming playoffs, and they are excited about him returning next season to anchor the team’s offensive attack.
The Jacks are keeping their fingers crossed that college teams don’t come sniffing around and try to get him to jump to the next level too soon, Hamilton said.
“You can almost guess that there are schools that are looking at him and thinking that he’s ready,” Hamilton said. “The plan is for him to come back here next year. I think he could be one of the top three or four scorers in the league.”
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