MUSKEGON – Maybe it’s just the sight of the Madison Capitols that gets the Muskegon Lumberjacks revved up to win.

That’s certainly understandable after what happened at the painful end of the 2021-22 season.

The Capitols finished in fifth place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference last season, then suddenly got hot in the playoffs, knocking off several teams that finished well ahead of them in the standings.

One of those teams was Muskegon, which had a nice playoff run until the Eastern Conference finals against Madison. The series came down to a fifth and final game, when the Capitols poured it on and beat the Jacks 8-4 in Muskegon.

The Lumberjacks have been busy taking their revenge this season. It started about a month ago when they traveled to Madison and swept two games, then continued on Friday night when they grabbed a big early lead and cruised to an 8-3 win in front of a big, noisy crowd at Trinity Health Arena.

Ethan Whitcomb and Luke Buss each had two goals for the Lumberjacks. Nathan McBryer had three assists while Tyler Hotson added two.

The Lumberjacks improved to 9-7 on the season and are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with 18 points. They are five points behind first-place Chicago, three behind second-place Green Bay and one behind Team USA.

Madison fell to 5-10-1. Two teams will square off again on Saturday night in Muskegon.

The Lumberjacks received a huge gift early in the game when Madison’s Mikko Mattika was given a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for butt-ending with his stick.

Muskegon made the most of it, scoring two power play goals within the first six minutes of the game. They added two more goals before the end of the first period and had a solid 4-0 lead that held up nicely.

The Lumberjacks finished with three power play goals on the night, which is really good for a team that came into the game seventh in the eight-team Eastern Conference in that category.

“We started our really hot with a nice power play, that got us going and we took it from there,” Whitcomb said. “It was the worst feeling ever getting beat out by them in the conference finals last season, and it was nice to beat them tonight. Hopefully we can get them again tomorrow.”

Lumberjacks coach Mike Hamilton said Madison played on Wednesday and came in tired, and he was happy to see his team take full advantage.

He said Friday’s game was probably the closest the Lumberjacks have come having a compete performance this season.

“There were lots of opportunities to jump on them early, so it was awesome that we took advantage of that five-minute power play to get it going,” Hamilton said.

“With this team it’s always something – sometimes we take off the first period, sometimes our power play is not going, sometimes our penalty kill is not going. We have not been able to put a full 60 minutes together and have everything clicking, and tonight there were a lot of those pieces there.

“That’s something that we’ve been focusing on, how to get a full 60 minutes of play. Tonight was a well-rounded game with a lot of guys on the score sheet.”

The Jacks broke the ice early during their long five-minute power play with goals by Tyler Dunbar, who scored on a shot from the point at the 3:40 mark, and Gavin McCarthy, who scored his third goal in the last two games at 5:32.

Whitcomb kept the scoring parade going when he popped in a rebound from the right face-off circle at 11:25 of the first period, then Buss found the net in the final minute of the period.

Muskegon outshot Madison 15-3 in the first 20 minutes.

David Hymovitch added a goal at 2:16 of the second period and William Hughes scored his first of the season at 7:56, and suddenly the Lumberjacks had a 6-0 lead.

Madison’s Jonah Aegerter broke the shutout with a goal at 11:56 of the second period.

The teams traded goals in the third period, with Madison’s Andrew Kuzma scoring at the 5:47 mark, Whitcomb following with his second goal at 8:07, the Capitols’ Cole Landale finding the net at 9:03, then Buss wrapping things up with a shorthanded empty-net goal for Muskegon at the 19:24 mark.

Muskegon goalie Conor Callaghan stopped 21 of 24 shots to get the win and improve his record to 6-2 on the season.

Madison netminder Mason Kusenski stopped 26 of 33 shots and took the loss.