Muskegon Tops Road-Weary Gulls

Travel time has finally caught up with the road-weary Gulls, who have played 13 of their last 17 on the fly.

Saturday in Muskegon, Mich., after dropping a 6-4 International Hockey League to the Lumberjacks, the Gulls have now gone 1-6-1 in their last eight road games.

In front of 2,954 in Walker Arena, the Gulls trailed 5-2 before successive power play goals by Dennis Holland and Charlie Simmer made it 5-4 in the third period. It was Holland’s second goal of the night, 16th of the season, after scoring a goal in the second.

With five seconds left, Jamie Leach scored an empty-net goal that completed the scoring.

This was the Gulls (17-16-4) second game of this road trip, the next is Monday in Kansas City. For only the second time, they dropped to third, in the IHL West, behind Salt Lake.

Gull defenseman Derek Mayer scored his eighth goal of the year in the first period before Muskegon (16-16-2) tied it going into the second.

Two Lumberjacks scored to go up 3-1, before Holland’s first goal closed the gap to 3-2. Muskegon’s Perry Gancher scored his 17th goal to make it 4-2, and teammate Jock Callander scored his ninth for the 5-2 lead.

Center Larry Floyd had three assists, extending his point scoring streak to 11 games. Goalie Alain Chevrier (4-5) got the loss.