Granite City Lumberjacks 5 - Hudson Crusaders 4
After an emotional win the night before, the Lumberjacks took off to Wisconsin to hopefully once again down the Crusaders and end the 2007 year on a winning streak. In addition to ending a season long nine game losing streak, the previous nights win gave the Lumberjacks their first victory versus a Wisconsin team.
Recent games had the Lumberjacks jumping out first; however, Sunday night’s game began with the Crusaders scoring the first goal of the game. #06 Colin Barnauskas continued his great play by scoring their first goal at the 4:41 mark. The goal was scored unassisted and would stand as the only score for only 2 minutes. Lumberjacks leading goal scorer, #18 Tyler Wahl, knotted the game at 1 with his own unassisted goal. Not long later the Crusaders would come back storming with two more goals and take a 3-1 lead. #05 Matt Johnson would skate into the scoring column with an unassisted even strength goal. The goal would come at the 17:25 mark and bring the Lumberjacks back within one goal. The Lumberjacks would outshoot the Crusaders 13-10; however, the scoreboard was proof the Crusaders were making the most of their opportunities.
The Crusaders stretched the lead back to 2 early in the second period. Tyler Fischer would score for the Crusaders to make the lead 4-2; however, the Lumberjacks would come back to tie the game at 4 with back-to-back goals from forwards, #07 Tyler Sura and #14 Kent Kirby. #03 Brad Phenow would get credited for an assist on Kirby’s goal. The period would end in a 4-4 tie with both teams only accounting for 13 shots combined.
The third and decisive period would be nothing more than a shooting brigade against both goalies. The Crusaders would outshoot the Lumberjacks 22-11 in the period, but more importantly, would be outscored 1-0. For the second night in a row, #09 Sean Kenny would account for the game-winner. Kenny would score his goal just 2 minutes and 50 seconds into the final frame. #15 Kevin Bergquist and #19 Alex Naujokas assisted on the goal. The Crusaders would go onto dominate the final period, but could not muster up a goal against #01 Tyler Venne.
Sunday night’s game was the last game of the 2007 year. Furthermore, this was the final regular season match-up between the Lumberjacks and the Crusaders. The Crusaders won the season series 4-2.
The Lumberjacks will return to action on January 5th when they travel to Rochester to face the Ice Hawks. Puck drops at 7:05 p.m.