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Alpena Ready For Big Weekend With Two Home Games

February 20, 2008 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Alpena IceDiggers News Release


Alpena MI: The Alpena IceDiggers will play three games this weekend with two of them coming at Northern Lights Arena.

On Friday the IceDiggers will travel to Traverse City to play the North Stars before returning home to Northern Lights Arena on Saturday to finish up the home and home series. Face off for Saturday's home game is at 7:00PM.

"This weekend is a big weekend for us, we need to make sure we play as well as we did last weekend in order to be successful." said head coach Kenny Miller

The USA U-17 Team returns to Northern Lights Arena for only the third time this season on Sunday. The puck drops at 5:00PM.

Alpena is coming off a weekend where the club took three out of a possible four points on the road in St. Louis versus the north division leading Bandits. On Friday the IceDiggers came from behind to win 4-3 in OT. On Saturday the two clubs went to over time and this time the hometown Bandits came away with a 6-5 win.

The St. Louis Bandits holds the best home record in the entire NAHL at 37-8-2. The IceDiggers are the only team in the NAHL this season to claim at least three points in a weekend series at the Summit Center in Chesterfield MO.

"Last weekend was a good test for our guys and they responded well, for us to go down their and come away with three points was big for our teams confidence." added Miller

Several IceDiggers had multiple point games this past weekend. Jimmy McCusker led the way with 4 goals and 2 assists. Erik Peterson had 3 goals and 2 assists. Isaac Viau chipped in 1 goal and 2 assists. Jon Puskar and Russ Anderson had 3 assists each. Nick Graves went 1-0-1 and made a total of 77 saves.

This weekends games against Traverse City will wrap up the regular season series between the two clubs. The IceDiggers hold a record of 7-3-2 against their in state rival.

Fans that are unable to attend the three games this weekend can watch all the live action on the B2 network by logging onto www.icediggers.com for only $6.00

DIGGER NOTES:

During Saturday night's game all the proceeds of the 50/50 raffle will go to benefit Alpena Youth Hockey Association member Garrett Bartlett. Garrett a 7th grade student at Thunder Bay Junior High has been invited to participate in the 4th Annual Disabled Hockey Festival in Marlborough, MA on April 4th through April 6th. He is a goalie on the Thunder Bay Wrecks Bantam Travel team. Garrett was born with a rare birth defect on his left hand. Garrett has played hockey for the past five years and wears a custom built goalie glove.

On Sunday the IceDiggers will welcome the IP program from the Alpena Hockey Association, the young hockey players will play an exhibition game during the 1st intermission.

Injured forward and Scotland UK native Tristan Harper has started skating and team doctors feel he will be ready for game action next week sometime. Harper injured his knee on December 21st against Traverse City and has not played since.



North American Hockey League Stories from February 20, 2008


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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