The Lumberjacks and Stampede open the best-of-5 Finals Friday night in Sioux Falls
The United States Hockey League Clark Cup Finals are set to begin on Friday night with the Muskegon Lumberjacks travelling to Sioux Falls to take on the Stampede.
On Monday, the fifth-seeded Lumberjacks defeated the Madison Capitols in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. After falling behind 2-0, the Lumberjacks stormed back with six unanswered goals, cracking Capitols goaltender Caleb Heil to prevail in the winner-take-all game.
Lumberjacks forward Rūdolfs Bērzkalns, who is eligible for the upcoming National Hockey League Draft, picked up two goals and one assist, helping lead the Lumberjacks to victory. After recording 25 points over 48 games this season, the 18-year-old has found his stride this postseason, picking up 10 points over 12 games.
Carl Axelsson continued his strong playoffs on Monday, turning aside 21 of 23 shots, to help claim the win. The 19-year-old has put together a strong postseason, posting a record of 8-4-0 with a 2.10 goals-against average and 0.906 save percentage. Axelsson is set to be tested starting on Friday as the Stampede office scored 267 during the regular season, the second most in the USHL, trailing only the Dubuque Fighting Saints, who scored 272.
On Tuesday night during Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, the Stampede took down the Fargo Force 3-2 in a low-scoring affair. Forward Logan Renkowski scored his seventh goal of the playoffs with under two minutes to play in the second period to set up Joey Macrina’s heroics.
Macrina scored his first goal of the playoffs, beating Force goaltender Ajay White under the pad with 2:18 remaining in the third period. Macrina scored 19 goals this season, but none was bigger than the tie-breaking goal on Tuesday night to send Sioux Falls to the finals.
Stampede goaltender Linards Feldbergs has been a big factor during Sioux Falls’ run to the Clark Cup. The Merrimack College commit, and 2025 World Junior standout with Latvia, is 6-1-3-0 in these playoffs, picking up one shutout, and recording a 2.02 GAA and 0.932 SV%.
The two clubs only met twice this regular season. Sioux Falls claimed the first meeting with a 7-4 win before Muskegon bounced back the following day with a 5-3 victory of their own.
Game 1 of the best-of-5 series is on Friday, May 15, in Sioux Falls at Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. Puck drop is set for 7:05 p.m CST.