MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks did their share of impressive things on Friday night.

Their penalty kill kept up its amazing pace, holding Green Bay scoreless on four power play opportunities.

Goalie Raythan Robbins played well under a lot of pressure, stopping 33 shots.

Talented defenseman Gavin McCarthy had a fitting return to the lineup after a 15-game injury absence by scoring a goal.

But none of that mattered, because the Jacks couldn’t muster much in the way of offense.

George Fegaras gets ready to take the shot. Photo/Tonya Pardon.

The Lumberjacks were outshot 36-16 and fell to the Green Bay Gamblers 3-2 at Muskegon’s Trinity Health Arena.

Good defense, goaltending and penalty killing kept the Jacks in the game until the end, but Green Bay’s Jakub Altrichter settled the issue when he scored the game winner with just 22 seconds left in the contest.

The Gamblers scored a goal within the final two minutes of all three periods.

The Lumberjacks, who have lost two games in a row, fell to 18-21-2 on the season. Green Bay, the second-place team in the Eastern Conference, improved to 25-14-2.

The two teams will have a rematch on Saturday night in Muskegon.

“I thought we missed the net a few times and we weren’t able to sustain offensive-zone pressure,” said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. “They are a really structured, well-coached team and they clog it up in the neutral zone. It is tough to break through at the blue line.

McCarthy defends the Lumberjacks’ goal. Photo/Tonya Pardon

“Their defensive zone is tight, and they have good goaltending, and we just didn’t do a great job creating offense.”

The highlight of the evening was McCarthy’s goal, which came at 16:24 of the second period and gave Muskegon a 2-1 lead.

McCarthy, a brilliant second-year defenseman who excels on both ends of the ice, has been out of the lineup since Dec. 17. That was the last game he played with the Jacks before joining the American squad at the World A Junior Challenge Tournament in Canada.

He suffered an injury during the tournament and missed the next 15 Lumberjacks games.

“It’s exciting for Gavin to be back, and for him to get the first one out of the way is great,” Burgess said. “There was a little bit of rust, but ultimately he did a lot of encouraging things and we are excited to have him back.”

Muskegon’s penalty kill continued to be amazing. The Lumberjacks have not surrendered a power play since the second period of their game on Feb. 3.

Lumberjacks goalie Raythan Robbins covers the puck. Photo/ Tonya Pardon

They have now killed off 19 straight power plays, including Green Bay’s five-minute power play in the second period on Friday.

“The penalty kill, the defense and Raythan (Robbins) did a good job and gave us a chance to win a hockey game,” Burgess said.”Unfortunately we didn’t get the results. It is a tough pill to swallow right now.”

The Jacks jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 13:39 of the first period on a goal by George Fegaras, before Green Bay’s Carter Rose tied the game by scoring at the 18:03 mark.

Muskegon pulled ahead on McCarthy’s goal in the second period, then the Gamblers tied the game again with a goal by Raimonds Vitolins at 19:54.

The third period was scoreless until the end, when Altrichter popped in the winner with 22 seconds left.