Muskegon, Mich. – Thanks to a series of headstands, Joel Vienneau has his Muskegon Lumberjacks staring down a chance to sweep Team USA in a first-round best-of-three Clark Cup Playoff series.

 

The Jacks’ goaltender turned aside all 34 shots he faced at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube on Friday. Matt Berry scored a greasy goal early in the final period of regulation and Casey Thrush potted an empty-net goal to seal up Game 1 for the visitors in front of their well-traveled fan base.

 

Berry, a Canton, Mich., native, scored his first goal of the postseason after leading the Jacks with 25 tallies in the regular season. He earned his first playoff goal as his shot danced along the back of Team USA netminder Jared Rutledge before the Jacks willed it across the goal line.

 

After the Jacks killed off a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 1 minute and 43 seconds late in the third, Thrush scored the empty-netter on the forecheck with a deft poke check that steered the puck into the vacated cage with 34 seconds left in regulation.

 

Vienneau, a Hearst, Ontario, native, posted the clean sheet in his first Clark Cup Playoff statrt and matched his shutout total for the regular season. He stopped eight shots in the first, 15 in the second and 11 in the third, as the Jacks were outshot 34-27.

 

Muskegon went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Team USA went 0-for-5 with the man advantage. Both teams are making the Clark Cup Playoff debuts.

 

Game 2 will get under way at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Once again, Jacks fans can send off the team at Holiday Inn, 3600 Plymouth Rd., Ann Arbor, Mich. at 4:45 p.m. The broadcast opens with the AT&T Pregame Show at 6:30 p.m.