Friday's box score

MUSKEGON, Mich. – Five unanswered goals, two of which came on the power play, helped the Muskegon Lumberjacks to a 5-2 victory over the Tri-City Storm on Friday night at Trinity Health Arena. 

Muskegon (24-11-7, 55 pts) has scored five or more times in three of its past six games. Tri-City (18-19-3, 39 pts) has dropped three straight for the first time since early November. 

Despite exchanging one power play each in the opening frame, neither team scored across the first 20 minutes. Muskegon outshot Tri-City 12-3 during the period. 

Tri-City scored the game's first goal at the 7:36 mark of the second. After Paul Bloomer collected a loose puck in the Muskegon slot, the Chicago-area native fired a quick shot toward Muskegon netminder Stephen Peck. The Michigan commit allowed a healthy rebound and the Storm were quick to take advantage. Lincoln Hjelm ended up with the puck and banged it in near the left post of Muskegon's cage for his third goal of the season. 

It took the Storm exactly 60 seconds to double their lead. During a Tri-City power play, Shaun McEwen skated the puck down the left wing into the Muskegon zone. The Storm captain slapped a shot in the direction of Peck. Muskegon's goaltender allowed another large rebound to the right wing circle, where Carson Pilgrim grabbed the puck and sent a snapshot to the back of the Lumberjack cage. The North Dakota commit has tallied in two of his last three games. 

A couple minutes later, Muskegon began its string of five unanswered goals. 

This first came after Tri-City's Nolan Roed was assessed a minor penalty for holding. During a Lumberjacks offensive zone possession, Danny Klaers ripped a shot from the Muskegon offensive blue line. The puck was stopped by Storm goaltender Kyle Jones, but the Bakersfield, California native allowed a small rebound off the left side of his body. The loose puck was quickly finished off by Muskegon. Michigan commit Teddy Spitznagel received credit for the goal. It was his eighth of the season. 

The Storm were able to kill a 5-on-3 toward the end of the second and beginning of the third periods. An Atilla Lippai minor for tripping and Shaun McEwen high sticking penalty overlapped for approximately 45 seconds. 

The Lumberjacks tied the contest just 43 seconds into the third. In the waning moments of McEwen's minor, Klaers sent another shot from his offensive blue line that was redirected near Jones by Jack Galanek. 

Muskegon pulled ahead slightly over a minute later. After a failed wraparound attempt from behind Tri-City's net by Ivan Ryabkin, the puck slid to the left point and Rudolfs Berzkalns. The Latvia native rocketed a snapshot inside the top left corner of Jones' cage for his fifth of the year.

The Lumberjacks struck again in the midst of a netfront scramble at the 6:25 mark of the third. Several Muskegon players caved in as Jones attempted to cover a loose puck in his crease. Jack Christ scooted the puck around Jones' left leg into the back of the net for his seventh of the year. 

Tri-City pulled Jones for an extra attacker with about four minutes remaining in the third. Muskegon was quick to find the empty net. Galanek collected a loose puck in the right wing circle of the Lumberjacks' end and shot it the length of the rink inside Tri-City's vacant cage. Friday was Galanek's third multi-goal game since January 1. 

Jones stopped 34 of the 38 shots he faced on Friday. Peck halted 29 of 31 to collect his eleventh win of the year. 

Up next: Tri-City ends the two-game set at Muskegon on Saturday inside Trinity Health Arena. Puckdrop is scheduled for 5:10 pm CT. The contest will be broadcast on FloHockey and Storm Radio.