Two Early Shorthanded Goals Propel Lumberjacks to a 6-2 Win Over Dubuque
October 22, 2022 – United States Hockey League (USHL) – Muskegon Lumberjacks News Release
MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Lumberjacks have been committing a lot of penalties early in the season, and it’s cost them on a number of painful occasions.
A good example was last weekend in Green Bay, when the Jacks gave up five power play goals over two games and lost both to the Gamblers.
But on Saturday, penalties played to the Jacks’ advantage, particularly when Luke Buss and Cody Croal were on the ice.
The Jacks scored two short-handed goals in the first period – the first by Buss after taking a great pass from Croal, and the second by Croal after a great pass from Buss, and went on to roll to a 6-2 victory over the Dubuque Fighting Saints at Trinity Health Arena.
Muskegon improved to 4-4-0 n the season while Dubuque fell to 3-3-0. The Jacks will return to the ice next weekend on the road with a pair of games in Madison. Their next home game will be Nov. 5 against Youngstown.
The game was the first of the regular season for Buss, a talented forward from Columbus, Ohio who played in the British Columbia Hockey league last season before coming to the Lumberjacks this year.
He was injured during training camp and finally returned on Saturday, at a perfect time for the Jacks, because they were playing without veteran forwards Owen Mehlenbacher and Jack Reimann, who are both serving suspensions.
Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton expected big things out of Buss, and he liked what he saw in his first game back.
“We talked about Buss coming back and being available with that speed,” Hamilton said. “That can be deadly, and he does some special things.”
Buss said he put in some practice time with Croal over the summer and that came in handy on Saturday.
“I was excited to get back and it was a really good first game,” Buss said. “It was a fun game and I am glad to get the win. Croal and I played at minicamps during the summer, we gelled pretty quickly, and I was glad we were together and helped get the team a couple of important goals.”
The Lumberjacks also welcomed back goalie Coner Callaghan, who had to leave the team for personal reasons last weekend and missed both games.
He collected his third straight win, holding Dubuque to only a pair of third period power play goals. Callaghan was also very strong two weeks ago, when he was the winning goalie in both games against Cedar Rapids at home.
Callaghan was aided by a tough Muskegon defense, which held Dubuque to only 12 shots through 2 ½ periods. The Jacks ended up outshooting the Fighting Saints 36-22.
“He made the saves that were important at certain points of the game, and that was the key,” Hamilton said about his goalie. “His timely saves are awesome, and he is carrying the weight for us and doing well.”
The Jacks opened the scoring at 11:13 of the first period when playing shorthanded.
Croal made a perfect pass in front of the net to Buss, who popped it in to give the Jacks an unexpected spark.
Their roles changed on the next goal, also a short-hander, with less than a minute to go in the first period. Buss made a great pass to Croal, and he found the mark for his second goal of the season, putting Muskegon up 2-0 at the end of the first.
Muskegon’s Michael Callow had the only goal of the second period, his third of the season, and the Jacks led 3-0 at the second break.
The third period was about as wild as a period could be, with tons of penalties and lots of confusion.
Dubuque was called for nine penalties in the third for 32 minutes while the Jacks had eight infractions for 16 minutes.
The teams were called for all sorts of penalties, including roughing, slashing, abuse of an official, cross checking and tripping. At two different points there were five players crowded inside the Dubuque penalty box.
There was also some hockey played and a few more goals were scored.
Tyler Hotson had a power play goal at 1:13 of the third to give the Jacks a 4-0 lead.
Dubuque collected two power play goals – from Ryan St. Louis and 3:54 and Nils Juntorp at 11:49 – to make the score 4-2, but Muskegon nailed won the win with Hotson scoring his second of the game and fourth of the season at 17:09, and Matvei Gridin getting his first of the season at 19:36.
Hamilton was disappointed with the messiness of the third period and how it affected an otherwise great performance for the Jacks.
“I liked a lot of the game, but I wish we played cleaner instead of giving them life and hope at the end,” the coach said.
Hamilton also said the win was important after the two ugly losses in Green Bay last weekend.
“Last week was disappointing and there was nothing that we liked about going and losing two,” he said. “So tonight, we came out with some firepower and dug deep to get an important win.”
• Discuss this story on the United States Hockey League message board…
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
