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Rangers Top Blizzard

March 13, 2009 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Marquette Rangers News Release


Marquette - The Marquette Rangers tier II Junior A hockey team began their regular-season ending six game home stand with a 5-2 win over the Alexandria Blizzard of the North American Hockey League Central Division Friday night at Lakeview Arena.

With the win, Marquette (23-22-8, 54 pts.) keeps pace with Alpena for the final playoff spot in the NAHL North Division.

The IceDiggers beat Motor City in Wyandotte Friday night 4-1 to stay one point ahead of Marquette in the standings.

"Our guys battled hard," said Rangers head coach Kenny Miller. "We fell down 1-0, and never batted an eye; kept battling hard and made some good things happen against a team that beat us three times earlier this year at their place. We talk a lot about playing a full 60 minutes and tonight with a few exceptions here and there I thought we did that. We were also able to take advantage of a few special teams opportunities and get a good win."

Marquette scored twice with the man advantage, and added a shorthanded goal in the victory.

The Blizzard (22-25-5, 49 pts.) would open the scoring at 6:30 the opening period when a blast from Derek Kaiser beat Rangers goaltender Kevin Kissaw for the early advantage; assists were awarded to Jerry Freismuth and Joe Knoepke.

For awhile after that, the Rangers found Blizzard goaltender Ryan Leets difficult to get through, as the Alexandria netminder made several key stops on quality chances by Marquette.

The Rangers Kent Daavettila would eventually equalize things with a minute and a half remaining from Chad Pietila and Marquette native James Gallagher; ending the first period with the two teams tied at one.

The Rangers would break the game open in the second period with three straight goals from Scott Henegar, Kevin Gravel and Ryan McGrath to make it 4-1. It was the third of the year for Gravel, and it was the one that seemed to take the wind out of Alexandria for the rest of the game.

"(Colin) Smith made a nice play in the corner and found me at the circle," Gravel said of his goal. "All I had to do was tee it up and luckily in went in." Gravel added an assist on Henegar's goal for a two point evening for the Kingsford native.

"We play well at home," Gravel added. "We need to be playing well now with the playoffs on the line, we need to take advantage of these six games at home and just come out and play hard every night. We did that tonight, now we need to do it again tomorrow and get the four points this weekend."

After the Blizzard had cut the score to 4-2 with a power play goal from Kyle Politz at 4:14, the Rangers would ice the game at 18:09 when Collin Saint-Onge scored his ninth of the year from Pietila and Garrett Ladd.

Kissaw stopped 19 of 21 Alexandria shots, while Leets was forced to make 37 shots on 42 shots by Marquette.

The two teams wrap-up their series Saturday night at 7:30 at Lakeview Arena.

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