The United States Hockey League is closing the regular season and former Oahe Capital Carter Sanderson and Muskegon Lumberjacks will be in the USHL playoffs. Where they finish and who they will play in the first round is still all up in the air heading into the final two games of the weekend.
The Lumberjacks will finish the season against the bottom team in the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Steel. With two wins, the Lumberjacks set themselves up for a chance at the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Two losses and they will finish in fourth place. At 1-1, who knows what will happen. Muskegon sits at 36-16-4-4 on the season at 80 points. They are just one point behind both second and third place Madison Capitols and Dubuque Fighting Saints and only two points behind the Youngstown Phantoms, the top team in the conference. Youngstown plays the USA Hockey National Development team while Dubuque and Madison play each other once before Madison ends with Green Bay and Dubuque with Cedar Rapids. If the Lumberjacks get one of the top two spots, they will have a bye in the first round and will face a first round winner. If they don’t get to at least second they will host either the Green Bay Gamblers or Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in a best-of-three series next week and will have to win to advance to the conference semifinals.
Sanderson is sitting with 11 points on the season with five goals and six assists in 46 games played. The University of North Dakota commit is the second youngest player on the team this year.
Muskegon will be at home on Friday at 6:10 Central Time puck drop and then at 5:05 on Saturday in Chicago. The first round of the Clark Cup Playoffs is scheduled to begin on Monday, April 14.
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