MUSKEGON – If things go well this weekend, the Muskegon Lumberjacks could make nice jump in the USHL Eastern Conference standings.

The Jacks, winners of five of their last six games, are currently in sixth place in the eight-team conference. They are 7-8-3 with 17 points in the standings, one point behind Cedar Rapids and Youngstown, who are tied with 18 points.

Dubuque and Madison are tied for second place with 24 points, and both teams could also be in the Lumberjacks’ crosshairs soon enough, if Muskegon keeps playing the way it has been.

Only first-place Chicago, with 32 points, seems out of range for the Jacks – at least right now. But the Lumberjacks have beaten the Steel twice this season, and certainly aren’t afraid of Chicago.

The Jacks will control their own immediate destiny as far as Cedar Rapids is concerned, because they will host the Roughriders for three big games this weekend at Mercy Health Arena. The Friday and Saturday games are scheduled for 7:10 p.m. while the Sunday matinee game will be at 4 p.m.

“As we’ve always said, with a little winning streak we could be moving up,” said Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton. “This weekend we will have the opportunity to move up a spot or two.”

The Lumberjacks’ recent surge is one of the top storylines in the USHL. They started out the season ice cold, winning only once in their first 10 games, and looking like a team that might struggle to qualify for a playoff spot.

The goaltending and defense were iffy, and the offensive was sputtering badly.

Suddenly all of that seems like ancient history.

“I think overall everyone is just kind of finding themselves,” Hamilton said. “We had so many guys back from last year who were like 10-goal scorers that wanted to make the instant jump to 30-goal scorers. We had to get back to having guys figure out who they are, and now they’ve been making good strides.”

Much of the Jacks’ offense during their recent surge has come from the forward line of Joey Larson, Quinn Hutson and Ben Strinden.

Over the past six games, the three of them have combined to score 15 of the Lumberjacks’ 31 goals.

Larson has led the way during the hot streak with eight goals and two assists, Hutson has five goals and five assists, and Strinden has two goals and four assists.

“There’s a lot of talent on that line, and when they get going, they are tough for any team to handle,” Hamilton said. “They’ve been providing a lot of positive momentum for our team, not just in points, but in the way they grind other teams down, helping the next line be successful.”

Most important win so far?

The Jacks came home last weekend sky-high after winning four straight on the road, then looked awful in a 7-3 loss on Friday night to second-place Madison.

The fact that they looked so good the very next night, storming out to a 4-0 lead over Madison then holding on to win 5-4, was a very good indication that the team has the talent and the will to keep the winning trend going.

“I thought Friday night was just disappointing,” Hamilton said. “We went back to doing things that didn’t bring us success before, like trying to play an up-and-down the ice track meet style with them. The good part is that the loss was not well received in the locker room, and we had an entirely different focus on Saturday night. It was exciting to see how they responded to a very good hockey team. There is a lot of fight in this group.”

The Jacks led 4-1 on Saturday with about four minutes left in the second period when play was suddenly stopped due to a hole in the ice. The second period ended early, the hole was repaired, then the teams came back after a break and played the rest of the second period and the third.

The stoppage seemed to steal the momentum from Muskegon, and they were outscored 3-1 the rest of the way, making the outcome kind of scary.

Madison’s last goal came with about a minute and a half remaining, after the Capitols pulled their goal for an extra attacker, and the Jacks had to keep them from scoring again in that same situation for the last bit of the game.

“I didn’t think that was good timing for us,” Hamilton said about the sudden stoppage of play in the second period. “Instead of being out there and finishing the last four minutes strong, we had to take an early break and we didn’t come out with quite the fight that we needed.

“Madison is a good hockey team. They are not going to quit. They are going to keep coming at you, and they can score goals.”

Fun to be playing old rivals again

Speaking of Madison and Cedar Rapids, the Lumberjacks had not played either of those teams since the 2019-20 season, because both took last season off.

That left the Lumberjacks with very little variety in their schedule, playing only Chicago, Dubuque, Team USA, Green Bay and Youngstown in the 2020-21 season.

Playing the same teams, over and over, because monotonous, according to Hamilton.

A few years ago, dropping two teams off the schedule would not have been a big concern, because the USHL had crossover games between Eastern Conference and Western Conference teams.

That ended last season due to COVID concerns, and was not brought back this season, probably because teams save a lot of money by not having to make the long trips to play teams from the other conference.

“It’s amazing,” Hamilton said about the opportunity to play Madison and Cedar Rapids again. “It gets to be a grind to continue to see the same teams over and over. This is refreshing. I’m looking forward to the time when we will get to play the west teams again, as well.”