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USHL Muskegon Lumberjacks

Callow Scores Twice, Lumberjacks Salvage a Weekend Split with an Exciting 4-2 Win Over Green Bay

February 18, 2023 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Muskegon Lumberjacks News Release


MUSKEGON - When the good Muskegon Lumberjacks show up, exciting things can happen.

The trick is to get those good Jacks to take the ice more than once every weekend.

One night after generating little offense in a frustrating one-goal loss to Green Bay, the Lumberjacks came back with their A game on Saturday.

Michael Callow scored two goals to lead the Jacks to a very nice 4-2 victory over the Gamblers, the No. 2 team in the USHL's Eastern Conference, in the finale of the two-game weekend series at Muskegon's Trinity Health Arena.

"We generated a lot of offense tonight, even though we were more selective in our shots," said Lumberjacks coach Parker Burgess. "We made a few adjustments that the kids picked up on, especially in the second period. I am really proud of the guys."

The victory continued a familiar pattern for the young Lumberjacks - one win and one loss per weekend, which has now happened four weekends in a row.

Some would call that treading water and say it may not be enough to get Muskegon into the Clark Cup playoffs. That may or may not prove to be true, since the Jacks have been stuck in seventh place in the Eastern Conference - one spot out of the playoffs - for some time now.

But Lumberjacks Coach Parker Burgess said his team has played well enough in several recent losses to get a win, and he thinks more consistency could be right around the corner.

"We have played five or six games really well," Burgess said. "We could have had two wins in Madison (last weekend) and two this weekend. The results have been to win one then lose one, but we are really happy with the progress the group is making, and the results will follow."

Whatever happens over the remaining 20 games of the regular season, one thing is clear - the Jacks are a lot of fun to watch on the nights they play well, like they did on Saturday.

They got great goaltending for the second game in a row, this time from Conor Callaghan, who stopped 32 of 34 Green Bay shots to get the win.

The Jacks' amazing penalty killing effort also continued, They held the Gamblers scoreless on three opportunities, and have now killed off 21 consecutive opponent power plays, dating back five games.

The Lumberjacks even won the big fight of the evening, an energetic exchange of punches between Muskegon's Owen Keefe and Green Bay's Josh Player. .

Keefe landed many more blows, and was rewarded for his victory with a five-minute fighting penalty and a 10-minute misconduct.

The Jacks didn't have many more shots on goal than they did in Friday's loss - 19 as opposed to 17 - but this time they made their shots count.

Callow started things off in an exciting way at 6:03 of the first period when he scored a shorthanded goal to give the Jacks an early advantage.

Green Bay pulled ahead in the second period with goals by Artyom Levshunov at 5:28 and Jimmy Clark on a shorthanded tally at 12:08, then Callow tied the game 2-2 with his second goal at 14:17 of the middle period.

"We had a big bounce-back from last night," Callow said. "We are prioritizing getting some consistency back. We are right there, and we are close to getting there. We believe a winning streak is coming."

The game-winning goal came from Muskegon's Cody Croal, who took a beautiful forward pass from defenseman Nathan McBrayer and broke in alone and scored at 2:49 of the third period.

William Hughes added an insurance goal for the Lumberjacks at the 14:09 mark.

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