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Muskegon Lumberjacks’ season comes to a close in Clark Cup Final

MiHockey Staff
Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey
Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey

 

By @MichaelCaples –

It may not have ended the way they wanted it to, but the Lumberjacks still had one historic season in Muskegon.

The USHL club had their season come to an end on Friday, when the Sioux Falls Stampede finished off the Clark Cup Final with a 4-2 victory in South Dakota. With the victory, the Stampede completed a 3-0 series sweep over the Lumberjacks.

Yet it was a season full of firsts for the Lumberjacks franchise. The club recorded their first best-of-five USHL playoff series victory when they knocked off top-seeded Youngstown in the first round, and after a win over perennial power Dubuque, they won a conference championship for the first time.

In just two years under GM John Vanbiesbrouck and coach Todd Krygier, the Lumberjacks have turned into a major player in the USHL.

“It’s obviously the first in franchise history to win the Eastern Conference and play for the Clark Cup,” Krygier told MiHockey after the Eastern Conference Final. “This is only my second year here coaching and John Vanbiesbrouck’s second year as general manager, so we’re really excited. We’ve only had one draft, we came in our first year and we did­n’t have a draft. We had all our players given to us, and we had to work with that. And then this year, we had a draft and made trades that we felt would help our organization be successful in the playoffs, and I think that the trades that Beezer has made for us have been absolutely huge in helping us be successful.”

There’s no reason to expect any kind of drop-off, either. Readers can take a look at MiHockey’s USHL Day 1 and Day 2 draft lists to see who the ‘Jacks have picked up for upcoming seasons. Make sure to check out our other articles and photo galleries about the Lumberjacks, as well:

And here are some tweets from Krygier and the players reflecting on an impressive 2014-15 season: