The Saints are in!
Dubuque (34-14-0-2, 70 pts) officially clinched their spot in the Clark Cup Playoffs Friday night with a 4-3 overtime win over the Muskegon Lumberjacks (28-13-4-4, 64 pts).
Gavin Cornforth was the man of the hour, potting the OT winner just after a minute into the extra frame.
The Saints built a two-goal lead early in the middle frame with a highlight-reel goal by Heikki Ruohonen. The Finnish forward scored his 10th of the season with a backhand under the bar, taking the puck all the way in from the neutral zone.
For the seventh consecutive game, Dubuque opened the scoring with Kristian Kostadinski’s fifth goal of the season just 1:10 into the first period. After a centering-feed bounced off of a Saints’ skate and into the net to tie the game at one, an offensive-zone draw for the Saints led to another lead.
Lucas Van Vliet won the faceoff to Michael Barron, who fed Torkel Jennersjö on the back-side to score his 12th of the season and put the Saints ahead 3-1.
Muskegon scored one in the second and one in the third to force overtime. Xavier Veilleux sent the puck up the far side to Drew Stewart, who lowered his shoulder after entering the offensive zone and sent a forehand shot from the slot for his 13th goal of the season to cutDubuque’s lead to 1.
The Lumberjacks tied the game 3-3 12:23 into the third period. A strong forecheck caused a turnover deep in the Dubuque zone. After the puck bounced to the front of the net, Vaclav Nestrasil was waiting for it and tapped it into the back of the net.
After both teams traded opportunities to start overtime, Jonathan Morello and Gavin Cornforth moved up ice on a 2-on-0 rush. Morello fed across the Muskegon slot for Cornforth on the right wing and the Saints’ leading scorer buried his 21st goal of the season for the 4-3 final.
The goal clinched the win and the Fighting Saints’ spot in the Clark Cup Playoffs.
Jan Špunar won his 21st game of the season with 22 saves in the victory. Dubuque stopped the only Muskegon power play, while the Saints did not score on their four chances to end a seven-game power-play goal streak.
Ruohonen led the way with a goal and an assist in the win to extend the Saints lead at the top of the Eastern Conference to three points heading into Saturday’s final regular-season matchup against fourth-place Muskegon.