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Rangers Return

December 31, 2008 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Marquette Rangers News Release


Marquette - When the Marquette Rangers Tier II Junior A hockey team announced their North American Hockey League schedule this past July, team president and general manager David Saint-Onge called it the best schedule in team history. With 16 of their last 25 games at home, the North Division team is hoping that those words were more prophesy than opinion.

The Rangers, (15-14-4) have been off since December 20th due to the holidays, and will begin the calendar year by entertaining the Alpena IceDiggers this Friday and Saturday at Lakeview Arena. Marquette and Alpena have been separated by 3 or fewer points in the North Division standings since early November.

"We're ready to get back into it," said Rangers head coach Kenny Miller. "It's a long season, and we were ready for some time off after the first half of the year; but now it's time to take advantage of the long rest and the fact that we have a ton of home games over the next three months."

After a slow start, the Rangers ended 2008 by winning four out of their last five; including a three game road sweep of Alpena and Motor City and a split at first-place Mahoning Valley.

"I like where we are as a team," added Miller. "We're getting scoring from a nice combination of veterans and newcomers; and both our goaltenders are giving us the chance to win whenever we hit the ice which is the key to any teams' success. If we continue to play the way we've been playing, I'm confident our fans will see good things happen the second half of the year."

Marquette continues to be led in scoring by cousins Chad and Aaron Pietilla, with Marquette native Jimmy Gallagher a close third. Chad Pietilla leads the way with 33 points (14g 19a) while Aaron Pietilla has notched 30 points on 12 goals and 18 assists; Gallagher is a close third with 28 points on 11 goals and 17 helpers.

Kevin Kissaw has seen the bulk of the workload for Millers' team in net over the past month; posting a record of 4-1 in the month of December. Overall Kissaw is 10-6-2 on the season with a goals-against average of 2.70 and a saves percentage of .916.

So far this season the Rangers and the IceDiggers have played eight times with Alpena holding a 5-3 record over Marquette on the season.

The puck drops at 7:30 PM both Friday and Saturday night.

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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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