Fighting Saints, Musketeers advance in USHL playoffs

The Dubuque Fighting Saints and Sioux Falls Stampede captured wins in their respective Best of Five United States Hockey League Conference Semi-Final series on Friday (April 21, 2017) night while the Youngstown Phantoms forced the Chicago Steel to wait at least one more night.

The Fighting Saints collected a 7-2 win at L.C. Walker Arena in Muskegon to earn a 3-1 win in its Best of Five series, advancing to the Eastern Conference Championship series while the Musketeers finished off a three-game sweep against the host Des Moines Buccaneers with a 2-1 edge at Buccaneer Arena to move into the Western Conference championship series.

Meanwhile the host Phantoms avoided a sweep with a 4-1 win against the visiting Steel.

Fighting Saints 7 at Lumberjacks 2

(Courtesy Dubuque Fighting Saints)

A complete, 60-minute effort gave the Dubuque Fighting Saints the series victory over the Muskegon Lumberjacks with six different goal scorers paving the road ahead.

Cole Guttman returned to the lineup, he paid immediate dividends for the Saints, capping a successful first period with a power play goal, along with a tally from Patrick Kudla helping the visitors build a 2-0 lead.

Guttman set up the eventual game-winning goal, scored by Jacob Hamacher, just nine seconds into the second period. On a rush immediately following the opening faceoff, Guttman found Hamacher sprinting down the left wing side, and he cashed in on Adam Brizgala to give the Saints the lead that they would not relinquish.

Muskegon battled back to cut the lead to two on a power play goal from Austin Alger, but that is as close as they would get. Quinn Preston, Hamacher, Michael Boyle and Alex Steeves closed out the scoring for the Saints, with four of those goals coming in the third period.

Preston’s goal started the avalanche of momentum that went the Fighting Saints’ way for the rest of the game. Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi set him up with a picturesque pass while dragging the puck around the Muskegon defense, and with a wide-open Preston on the back door, the tap-in was successful for the fourth goal of the night.

Boyle and Steeves tallied in the closing moments of the game, in response to a Will Smith goal at the 13:38 mark, but Muskegon would come no closer. The Saints outshot the Jacks 12-11, but outscored them 4-1 in the third period. For the game, the Fighting Saints outshot the Lumberjacks 41-29.

Jaxon Castor held the fort for Dubuque in the early stages with a flashy glove stop on Alger in the game’s first two minutes. He ended the game with 27 saves on 29 shots faced, and closed out the series with a third win.

Nine power plays were doled out in the game, with six going to the Saints. They tallied on two of the opportunities. Muskegon went 1-for-3.

The Fighting Saints will await their Eastern Conference Finals opponent. A schedule will be released later. Stay tuned to DubuqueFightingSaints.com for all of the upcoming details on the Clark Cup Playoffs by visiting the Clark Cup Playoff Hub.

Musketeers 2 at Buccaneers 1

Matiss Kivlenieks, the Goaltender of the Year in the USHL has been a part of many defensive low scoring battles for the Musketeers this season so Friday’s game was just another day at the office for the 20-year-old Latvian who is heading for Minnesota State, Mankato University in the fall.

This time, he turned aside 27 of 28 Bucs chances while his teammates battled back from a 1-0 second period deficit to move on to the Conference Final.

Colin Ugbekile, a 17-year-old native of Germany scored the lone Des Moines goal 1:29 into the middle period but Charlie Kelleher, 20, from Massachusetts pulled the Swordsmen even at 5:16 and teams were still all even heading to the final 20.

Kristian Pospisil, a recently turned 21-year-old native of Slovakia scored just before the halfway mark of the third and Kivlenieks took over from there making it stand up as the game and series winner.

Jan Ruzicka, 20, from Czech Republic, stopped 30 in goal for the Bucs.

Waterloo already claimed the other Western Conference Final spot earlier this week so the Musketeers and Black Hawks will square off in the Best of Five series, likely starting on Friday.

Steel 1 at Phantoms 4

The other East Conference final saw the host Phantoms battle back from the wall to extend the series.

The Steel picked up wins in the first two games on home ice, but the Phantoms, led by a 23-save performance from Ivan Kulbikov, 20, from Belarus and a big second half that saw the team turn an 1-1 score into a convincing win.

Michael Karow, 18, from Green Bay, WI scored the lone goal of the opening segment to put the Phantoms in front but Eduards Tralmaks, a 20-year-old native of Latvia pulled the Steel even 1:49 into the second.

Marshall Moise, 19, from St. Clair Shores, MI but the hosts in front to stay at the 6:10 mark and Tommy Apap, 21, from Bloomfield Hills added another about three minutes later for the Phantoms.

Brandon Estes, 20, from Texas added insurance for the Phantoms with his goal 7:17 into the final period.

The Phantoms will host the Steel once more at the Covelli Center in Youngstown on Saturday and the series will shift back to Chicago’s Fox Valley Ice Arena for a fifth and deciding game on Tuesday if needed.

Winner of this series will advance to play the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the Eastern Conference championship series.