USHL Dubuque Fighting Saints

Fighting Saints Hold off Muskegon to Earn 5-3 Win

Published on November 2, 2012 under United States Hockey League (USHL)
Dubuque Fighting Saints News Release


MUSKEGON, Michigan -It got dicey in the final minutes, but one night after dropping their first game of the season, the Dubuque Fighting Saints made sure that didn't happen again, holding of the Muskegon Lumberjacks for a 5-3 win on the road at the L.C. Walker Arena Friday night. The victory was the Fighting Saints tenth of the season, as Dubuque improved to 10-0-1 on the year. The Fighting Saints currently have 21 points, tops in the Eastern Conference, and increased its lead over the second place Lumberjacks who are 8-2-1 with 17 points.

After coming out flat the night prior in a 2-1 shootout loss to Team USA, Dubuque made sure to have a better start in Muskegon. Evan Janssen earned his first USHL goal for the Fighting Saints early in the first period on a beautiful redirection that helped Dubuque take a 1-0 lead on the road. As the Fighting Saints second powerplay of the game expired, Janssen and his line continued to cycle the puck around after mounting numerous chances. The puck came to Keegan Ford at the left point, and Ford fired a wrist shot towards the goal. Janssen was standing between the hashmarks in the slot and tipped the puck past Muskegon goalie Kevin Lindskoug. The goal came after the powerplay expired at 4:28.

The Fighting Saints added to its lead just under four minutes later as leading scorer Mike Szmatula added his team best seven goal of the season. The puck popped free to Szmatula behind the net. The forward wrapped the puck around and it deflected off Lindskoug's pad and rolled over the line to make it 2-0 on the unassisted goal. Dubuque took the 2-0 advantage into the locker room.

The two teams traded goals in the second period as both teams notched a pair of tallies. The Fighting Saints got goals from Peter Quenneville and John Stevens in frame two. Dubuque struck first on a beautiful passing play that Quennville finished. Jarrid Privitera won a puck battle along the near side half boards, sent the puck to Shane Sooth who dished it to Quenneville who tipped it top corner for his fifth goal of the season. Michael Brodzinski for Muskegon would add a powerplay goal at 5:21 on a shot from the blueline that eluded Dubuque's Arthur Brey to make it 3-1.

Dubuque would get the eventual game winner at 12:05 of the third period on the powerplay. Keegan Ford made a beautiful stretch pass from his own blueline to Frankie DiChiara at the far blueline. John Stevens was streaking down the right side of the ice and DiChiara chipped a pass over to Stevens, who one-timed a shot low glove side on Lindskoug for his second goal of the season.

Dubuque's penalty kill allowed three goals in the game, and two came from Max Shuart who struck for an unassisted powerplay goal at 14:46 of the second. Jeff Taylor attempted to clear the puck for Dubuque, and it hit the referee's skate and went right to Shuart who snapped a shot past Brey glove side to make it 4-2. Shuart added a powerplay goal on a rebound off a point shot at the 12:37 mark of the third period to make it a one-goal game. Brey stopped a wrist shot from the blueline, but Shuart shoved the rebound under his pad to cut Dubuque's lead to one.

The Lumberjacks pulled the goaltender in a final push and appeared to score to tie the game with 45.2 seconds left. The puck was dumped in behind the Dubuque goal and popped into the air in front of the net and was deflected in. The goal was immediately disallowed and was deemed to be knocked in with a high stick. The Fighting Saints survived a swarm from Muskegon and Privitera sealed the win with an empty net goal with five seconds remaining to give Dubuque a 5-3 win.

Ford and Quenneville both collected two points in the victory. Brey improved to 6-0-0 and stopped 20 shots in the win. Dubuque outshot Muskegon 30-23.

Tonight's game was the first of four straight between the Lumberjacks and Fighting Saints. The two teams play again tomorrow at 6:15 p.m. Central Time from the L.C. Walker Arena in Muskegon. Next weekend the series will shift to Dubuque as the Fighting Saints host the Lumberjacks on Friday, November 9 at 7:35 p.m. and Saturday, November 10 at 7:05 pm. Tickets are available by calling 563.583.6680 or by visiting DubuqueFightingSaints.com.

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United States Hockey League Stories from November 2, 2012


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