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Muskegon Lumberjacks

Lumberjacks Preparing to Host Dubuque on Saturday After a Tough Weekend in Green Bay

October 19, 2022 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Muskegon Lumberjacks News Release


MUSKEGON - The Dubuque Fighting Saints must be getting a little homesick by now, but the Muskegon Lumberjacks have no intention of offering them friendly aid and comfort.

The Fighting Saints' home rink, the Mystique Ice Center in Dubuque, Iowa, has been undergoing renovations that apparently have been taking more time than planned.

The people who make the USHL schedule must have known about that, because they sent the Fighting Saints on an eight-game road trip to start the season.

The seventh game of that trip will be on Saturday night in Muskegon against the Lumberjacks, who are planning on getting back on the winning track after two disappointing losses in Green Bay last weekend.

Saturday's game will be the first meeting between the teams since the Lumberjacks eliminated the Fighting Saints in the first round of last season's Clark Cup playoffs.

Dubuque is currently 3-2-0 on the season and will play on Friday night against Team USA in Plymouth, Michigan before visiting the Jacks.

The Fighting Saints' top sniper so far has been forward Ryan St. Lous, who is 12th on the league scoring chart with 12 points (four goals and four assists) in five games.

The Lumberjacks, 3-4-0, will be idle on Friday and well rested for Saturday's contest.

"Dubuque has a pretty deep lineup, and they're going to keep coming at you," said Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton. "They have some high-end talent and they're off to a pretty decent start. They have been displaced from their home and are still having success.

"They have a game Friday night when we are off, so we will be fresher on Saturday. We have to make sure we take it to them early and not let them dictate."

Mehlenbacher, Reimann serving suspensions

The Jacks will compete on Saturday without two key players - forwards Owen Mehlenbacher and Jack Reimann - who were both suspended for three games by the league for on-ice incidents that occurred in Green Bay on Friday night.

Reimann was given a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for a tripping penalty in the first period of Friday's game. Mehlenbacher was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for head contact in the second period.

Both sat out Saturday's game in Green Bay and have two games remaining on their suspensions.

There is some good news on the personnel front. Goalie Connor Callaghan, who played well at home in the victories over Cedar Rapids on Oct. 7-8, had to return home for personal business last weekend and was not available in Green Bay, but will be back in the lineup on Saturday.

The Jacks' front line will be bolstered by the return of forward Luke Buss, who scored 16 goals last season with the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey league, which is similar in stature to the USHL.

Buss was in training camp with the Lumberjacks but an injury has prevented him from playing in the regular season yet.

"He's got skills, he's got speed," Hamilton said about Buss. "Hopefully he will be ready this weekend."

Ugly losses in Green Bay

As we learned last season, when the Muskegon Lumberjacks got off to a very slow start, ups and downs are not unusual in the early weeks of the season.

The Jacks were definitely up when they hosted Cedar Rapids on Oct. 7-8, sweeping the two-game series in impressive fashion, and they were definitely down last weekend when they lost Friday and Saturday games in Green Bay by identical 6-3 scores.

The two losses were similar in more ways than the final score.

The second period proved to be the Jacks' undoing in both games. Muskegon was outscored 4-0 in the second period on Friday and 3-1 on Saturday.

The Lumberjacks were also plagued by penalties, including nine infractions for 51 minutes on Friday, and the penalties frequently led to Green Bay goals. The Gamblers were 3-for-4 on the power play on Friday and 2-for-5 on Saturday.

The Jacks, meanwhile, were scoreless in six power play opportunities in the two games.

"We got our butts kicked in the special teams battle," said Lumberjacks Coach Mike Hamilton. "I also wasn't too crazy about our compete level. We got a little bit away from our identify and game plan. There were lots of reasons, but at the end of the day I was mostly disappointed in the effort."

Hamilton said a lot of the penalties are the result of many players having different, more physical roles than they played in the past.

"Just about everyone is coming from somewhere where they scored 40 points or more, and suddenly we're asking some of them to do a lot of forechecking, and they don't know how to hit yet," the coach said. "This kind of thing happens at the beginning of every season, to be honest. There's always a learning curve."

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