The Muskegon Lumberjacks grabbed the momentum in the Eastern Conference Finals with a 2-1 victory in Dubuque against the Fighting Saints Friday night at ImOn Arena.
Both teams got sparkling play in net, but Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev outdueled Dubuque goalie Liam Beerman, saving 36 of 37 shots.
In the final minute of the first period, Muskegon took a 1-0 lead on a missile from Vaclav Nestrasil. Bauer Berry saw Nestrasil on the far end of the neutral zone and fired the puck off the glass for him to corral on his way across the blue line. Using Tynan Lawrence as a decoy on a 2-on-1 rush into the zone, Nestrasil carried the puck all the way down to the faceoff dot before putting in the shot on Beerman’s glove side.
Lawrence was also a factor on a goal from Chase Stefanek 6:20 into the middle period. Lawrence carried the puck out of a scrum along the nearside wall of the neutral zone, cut up the middle of the ice into the offensive end, then slid a pass to the far side for Stefanek at the top of the circle. Catching the pass on his forehand, Stefanek placed a shot just above the pad of Beerman for his 3rd goal of the postseason and a 2-0 Jacks lead.
The Saints cut into the lead at the 12:00 mark of the third period. Josh Giuliani found the puck in between the hashmarks in the Lumberjacks' zone and chipped it with the backhand of his stick over Gadzhiev's blocker.
That was the extent of the scoring, however. Gadzhiev (4-0) picked up the win. Beerman (3-2) earned the tough loss despite stopping 30 of 32 shots.
The teams meet again Saturday night at ImOn Arena for Game 2 of the best-of-5 series. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:05 Pm ET.