MUSKEGON, Mich – The Muskegon Lumberjacks returned to home ice for tonight’s Game 2 seeking a weekend split to the beginning of the best-of-five Clark Cup Final series before heading off to Sioux Falls, South Dakota next weekend. Following an empty opening frame offensively, the Stampede used a five-goal second period to eventually pull away to a convincing 6-1 road victory to grab the first two games of the series and take a 2-0 lead heading back home. 
Like the first game of the series, the first period of Game 2 saw a scoreless duel with Sioux Falls outshooting Muskegon by the slimmest of margins at 8-7. The Stampede started off 0-for-3 on the power play, and the Lumberjacks began the contest 0-for-1.
The second frame of regulation saw the Stampede notch five consecutive markers to take a 5-0 lead heading into the third period that began with a pair of goals ten seconds apart from Joey Raats (1) and Kieffer Bellows (7) at the 1:09 and 1:19 marks, respectively. Mikey Eyssimont and Lukas Buchta assisted on the first goal.
Just past the halfway point of the game at the 10:02 mark, Troy Loggins (9) laced a power play goal to increase the spread to 3-0 that was set up by Cooper Marody and Bellows. A couple of minutes later, Collin Peters (1) buried a rebound man advantage goal of his own to make it a 4-0 spread at the 12:40 mark that was aided by Dakota Joshua and Parker Tuomie.
Following Sioux Falls’ fourth goal of the game, Eric Schierhorn (6-5), who stopped 16 of 20 shots faced, was pulled in favor of Michael Latorella.
Before the middle stanza came to a close, Sioux Falls added one more to complete the five-goal frame with 2:30 remaining from Lawton Courtnall (1) that was assisted by Tuomie and J.M. Piotrowski.
The Stampede outshot the Lumberjacks during the middle 20 minutes of regulation by a 20-11 margin to increase their advantage overall to 28-18.
Towards the latter stages of the third, the Lumberjacks broke the shutout with 6:35 to go after pulling Latorella for the extra attacker as Matheson Iacopelli (5) slipped a wrist shot in the right faceoff circle under the pads of Stefanos Lekkas (8-3) that was helped by Ryan Siroky.
Moments after, Sioux Falls potted the final tally of the night 27 seconds after Iacopelli’s goal with an empty-netter by Bellows (8) for his second of the night that was set up by Marody. The Stampede outshot the Lumberjacks for the game, 36-30.
Stefano Lekkas posted a 29-save effort in the road victory, while Michael Latorella stopped 14 of 15 shots faced in relief work. Sioux Falls was 2-for-7 on the power play, and Muskegon finished 0-for-3. Kieffer Bellows led the Stampede’s offensive attack with a pair of goals plus an assist followed by Parker Tuomie and Cooper Marody chipping in with a pair of helpers each. With the goal, Matheson Iacopelli has tied Mark Petaccio for the team lead in goals scored this postseason with five, while Ryan Siroky has drawn even alongside Corey Schueneman for the team’s playoff lead in assists with seven. Muskegon falls to 6-5 in this year’s Clark Cup Playoffs that includes a 3-3 mark at home.
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