If the Muskegon Lumberjacks are ever going to rise above the .500 mark and get solidly back in the playoff picture, they will have to start stringing together some two-win weekends.
That’s something they haven’t done since Nov. 25-26, when they took two games from the Madison Capitols.
The Jacks had a great chance to end that cold streak on Saturday night when they faced the last-place Capitols again in the second of a two-game weekend series. They beat Madison on Friday with a seven-goal performance and seemed primed to complete the sweep.
But the offense that dominated on Friday disappeared on Saturday, and the Jacks fell 3-1 to the Capitols at the Bob Suter Capitol Ice Arena in Wisconsin.
[1]The Lumberjacks fell to 18-20-2 on the season while Madison improved to 10-28-2.
The Jacks will host Green Bay in a pair of games next weekend.
Madison’s Andrew Kuzma scored the only goal of the first period at the 17:58 mark.
Muskegon tied the game just 1:08 into the second period on a goal by Niko Rexine, who now has eight on the season. Sacha Boisvert and Matthew Morder assisted on the tally.
The Capitols broke the tie at 16:04 of the second period with a goal by Ethan Elias, then secured the win with an empty-net goal by Jordan Gudridge at 18:04 of the third.
Muskegon goalie Conor Callagha took the hard-luck loss while stopping 32 of 34 shots. The Jacks had a 36-35 advantage in shots on goal.
The Lumberjacks continued their strong play on the penalty kill, keeping the Capitols scoreless in five power play opportunities.
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