MUSKEGON – Leave it to the Chicago Steel to ruin a perfectly good party.

The Muskegon Lumberjacks were having a few great hours leading up to their home opener on Friday night, with a nice crowd gathering outside Trinity Health Arena for the pre-game Flannel Fest, then filing inside to check out the Jacks for the first time this season.

But the Lumberjacks had the misfortunate of playing the always-strong Chicago Steel, who looked to be in midseason form. The Jacks came out on the short end of a 5-1 score and learned about a few issues they need to address.

Nolan Joyce led Chicago with a pair of goals. Jake Richard scored Muskegon’s lone goal, his third of the young season.

Muskegon’s Sacha Boisvert lets a shot go while teammate Tyler Dunbar watches. Photo/Jeremy Clark

Muskegon is now 1-2 on the season while Chicago improved to 3-0.

The Lumberjacks will return to the ice next weekend with home games on Friday and Saturday against the Cedar Rapids Roughriders.

“We made a lot of little mistakes, and that’s what Chicago does – they wait for you to make a mistake and they capitalize,” said Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton. “They took full advantage of their opportunities.

“There are lots of details we have to clean up in practice, but overall I was not upset with the compete level. There are lots of lessons to learn from this game.”

Chicago drew first blood at 5:45 of the first period when Cameron Johnson found the net.

Boisvert looks to pass the puck. Photo/Jeremy Clark

The Steel took a two-goal lead at the 16:20 mark on Joyce’s first goal of the night, which gave his team a 2-0 edge at the first intermission.

The Jacks were outshot 10-4 in the first period.

The Steel scored twice more in the second period, first at 9:34 when Joyce scored his second goal, then at 19:04 when Michael Emerson scored on Chicago’s third power play of the night.

Muskegon’s best chance to score in the second period came when Owen Mehlenbacher broke in alone on the Chicago goal in a shorthanded situation, but had his shot denied by Steel goalie Christian Manz, who had several huge saves throughout the game.

Each team had 11 shots in the second period.

The refs break up a pushing and shoving match between the two teams in front of the Chicago goal. Photo/Jeremy Clark

Jack Harvey scored Chicago’s final goal in the third period, then Richard put Muskegon on the board by breaking through the Steel defense and scoring with a wrist shot from between the circles. David Hymovitch and Matthew Morden assisted on the goal.

Chicago had a 33-28 advantage in shots on goal.

Manz collected the victory, stopping 28 of 29 shots. Muskegon goalie Noah Rupprecht took the loss, stopping 28 of 33 shots.

Hamilton noted that the Lumberjacks’ offensive effort picked up as the game went on, but the Jacks had trouble finishing the plays.

“I thought we had lots of offensive chances that we didn’t put away,” he said.

He also admitted that Chicago got a few soft goals past Rupprecht.

“I think our goalie would definitely like to have a few of those back, but when you give (Chicago) ice they’re going to make you pay,” the coach said.