The USHL Eastern Conference championship series is turning into a battle of wills between two good teams that refuse to give up and keep punching and counterpunching.

On Saturday, the Madison Capitols delivered a gut punch to the Muskegon Lumberjacks by overcoming a two-goal deficit and winning 4-3 in overtime, tying the series at one game apiece.

The Lumberjacks returned the favor on Monday night in Madison, overcoming a pair of one-goal deficits and beating Madison 4-3 in overtime to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.

Muskegon’s Joey Larson scored the winning goal 15:22 in the first overtime period. That came after teammate Noah Ellis scored with just under three minutes left in regulation to force the extra period.

Game 4 will be in Madison on Tuesday, when the Lumberjacks will have a chance to clinch the series and move on to the Clark Cup finals for only the second time in their history.

A decisive Game 5 would be in Muskegon on Thursday night, if necessary. All tickets would be $5 for that game, and season ticket holders would get in free.

“That was a gut win right there,” said Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton, whose team is now 6-1 in the Clark Cup playoffs. “It showed how important winning is to our team. It wasn’t coming easy to us. We had to make a lot of adjustments and we continued to play hard and found a way to get it done. We showed a real will to win tonight.”

Lumberjacks goalie Chase Clark came up huge for the team again. improving his playoff record to 6-1. The Capitols outshot the Jacks 46-34, but Clark stopped 43 shots on a very busy night.

Madison peppered Clark with 17 shots in the first period and 19 in the second, but the game was tied 2-2 at the end of two.

“We were completely outplayed for the first 30 minutes,” Hamilton said. “Clarky kept us in the game, then the guys kept fighting through and found a way to get it going.”

Madison led 1-0 after one period after getting a goal from Qunn Finley just 13 seconds into the game.

The Jacks tied things up when Larson scored his first goal at 2:02 the second period, then Madison jumped ahead again when Casey Severo found the net at 7:09.

Muskegon captain Jack Williams scored at 15:55 of the second period, and the game was tied 2-2 headed into the third.

Madison’s Tyler Haskins put the hosts up 3-2 with a goal 54 seconds into the third period, then the Jacks answered again when Noah Ellis scored at the 17:04 mark, sending the game to overtime.

Larson scored from in front of the net with just under five minutes left in the first OT, putting Muskegon one win away from the finals.

“This was huge,” Hamilton said. “We came into tonight knowing it was down to a three-game series, with two on the road, and we had to win at least one and we did it. Now we want to get greedy and find another one tomorrow. If we don’t we will be back home on Thursday.”