Lumberjacks Waste a Two-Goal Lead, Fall 4-2 to Youngstown Phantoms at Home
November 5, 2022 – United States Hockey League (USHL) – Muskegon Lumberjacks News Release
MUSKEGON – Generally speaking, you have to play games to stay sharp, and the Muskegon Lumberjacks have not played a ton in the past few weeks.
Two weeks ago they had a one-game weekend, at home against Dubuque. Last weekend they played two in Madison, and won both, but this weekend they were down to one game again, on Saturday night against Youngstown.
So some might blame a bit of rustiness for the Lumberjacks’ disappointing 4-2 loss to the Phantoms in front of a big crowd at Trinity Health Arena – but Muskegon coach Mike Hamilton wasn’t buying that theory.
The coach knows the Jacks should have taken full advantage when they grabbed a two-goal lead in the first period, but instead let Youngstown hang around, score a goal in the second period and three in the third to steal the victory.
If anything, Hamilton thinks his team should have been well-rested and ready to seal the victory as the game wore on.
“We should have been fresh tonight,” Hamilton said. “You would have thought that in the third period our freshness would have taken over, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves.”
The loss left the Lumberjacks with a 6-5 record and broke their three-game winning streak. Youngstown improved to 3-5-1.
The Ioss also ended goalie Conor Callaghan’s five-game winning streak, although he made a lot of good saves and might have won with more offensive support.
The Jacks will return to the ice next weekend for Friday and Saturday night home games against Green Bay.
The Lumberjacks had a great first period, collecting a power play goal from Jake Richard (his sixth of the season) at the 6:25 mark, and a goal from Ethan Whitcomb, also his sixth, at 18:34.
Richard’s goal came when he popped in the rebound of a blocked shot from the right side of the Youngstown net. Whitcomb’s shot found its way into the goal after being partially blocked by Youngstown goalie Colin Winn.
“We had a great first period,” Hamilton said. “We played our game with speed and pace. In the second period we all wanted to score goals and got away from the game plan.
“We gave ourselves a nice lead and instead of building on it, we let them hang around and they found a way to win. We always say that we are going to compete for 60 minutes and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Shane Lachance scored for Youngstown at 8:05 of the second period, and the Jacks clung to a one-goal lead heading into the third.
Youngstown tied the game with a goal from Jack Willson at 9:57 of the final period, took the lead with a goal from Hunter Bischoff at 17:31, then added an empty-netter from James Fisher at 19:03.
The Lumberjacks outshot the Phantoms 27-23. Winn stopped 25 shots to collect the win while Callaghan stopped 19 in the loss.
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