USHL Muskegon Lumberjacks

Iacopelli Plays Regulation Hero, Molino Pots Shootout Winner

March 20, 2015 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Muskegon Lumberjacks News Release


GREEN BAY, Wisconsin - The Muskegon Lumberjacks looked to end its season-long six-game road swing with a solid two-game road trip around Lake Michigan to Green Bay, Wisconsin beginning tonight against the Green Bay Gamblers at the Resch Center. After trailing by a 2-0 score early in the second, the Lumberjacks slowly worked their way back and gave themselves a chance to even the score in the waning moments of regulation. With a mere moment remaining on the regulation clock, Matheson Iacopelli's game-tying goal with 1.3 seconds left helped launch the Lumberjacks to an eventual 3-2 shootout victory, 2-0 in the skills competition, over the Gamblers to pick up their 30th overall win on the season and second all-time triumph in Green Bay.

The Gamblers (16-29-7, 39 points) tallied the opening frame's lone goal just 2:00 in taking advantage of its first power play opportunity of the night as Nick Poehling fired a wrist shot between the faceoff circles past the blocker side of Eric Schierhorn (22-12-4) for his first career USHL goal to give the home team an early 1-0 lead. Vili Saarijarvi and Jack Poehling assisted on the man advantage marker.

Green Bay took its one goal lead into the first intermission break while outshooting Muskegon through the opening 20 minutes by a 12-9 margin. The Gamblers had the only three power play chances of the first period combined between both teams and went 1-for-3.

In the early moments of the second period, the Gamblers doubled their lead to 2-0 at the 45-second mark off a broken play and Sam Saliba burying a loose puck in the blue paint for his sixth as a Gambler and 14th overall on the season that was aided by Luke Bafia.

The two-goal difference remained the same into the latter moments of the second period when the Lumberjacks (30-18-4, 64 points) cracked the scoreboard on the power play to cut the deficit to 2-1 with 4:34 remaining. In the last moments of their second power play opportunity of the night, Matej Paulovic walked into the low slot and buried his 15th of the season past Jason Pawloski (8-18-5) that was helped by Griffen Molino and Corey Schueneman.

The one shot game held the same going into the second and final intermission break with the Gamblers slightly extending their shots on goal advantage to a 25-20 spread after outshooting the Lumberjacks during the middle frame 13-11.

The third period saw the Lumberjacks ramp up the volume on the offensive end outshooting the Gamblers 19-8 during the final 20 minutes of regulation but still trail by the same one goal deficit. After pulling Schierhorn for the extra attacker with 59 seconds to go, a key faceoff battle was won by Tommy Marchin with under five seconds left leading to a drop pass to Iacopelli in the high slot, who blistered his team-leading 22nd of the season past Pawloski to send the game into an overtime session. Paulovic also assisted on the tally.

Following a scoreless extra five-minute overtime frame, a shootout ensued in which the visitors received markers from Juraj Mily (first round) and the game-winner from Molino (third round) to send the Lumberjacks away with the full two points on the road. Schierhorn stopped both Gambler attempts during the skills competition. Muskegon outshot Green Bay for the night, 44-35.

Eric Schierhorn nabbed the win in net following a 33-save effort for Muskegon, while Jason Pawloski takes the overtime loss after stopping 42 of 44 shots faced. Matej Paulovic was the lone player to amass more than one point on the night with his goal plus one assist for the Lumberjacks. Muskegon went 1-for-3 on the power play, while Green Bay finished 1-for-4. Matheson Iacopelli tallied his 63rd career USHL goal and 96th point totaled since joining the league last season. The Lumberjacks improve to 6-2 in the shootout this season that includes a 4-0 mark on the road. To date, Muskegon is 3-0-0 against Green Bay this season with one regular season meeting left tomorrow night.

The Lumberjacks finish off their season-long six-game road swing with the backend of the two-game weekend series in Green Bay against the Gamblers tomorrow night beginning at 8:05 pm from the Green Bay Resch Center.

Check out the Muskegon Lumberjacks Statistics



United States Hockey League Stories from March 20, 2015


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.

OurSports Central