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Rangers Upend T.C.

January 9, 2009 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Marquette Rangers News Release


Traverse City - The Marquette Rangers Tier II Junior A hockey team has had a lot of success against the top teams in the North American Hockey League North Division this season. That trend continued Friday night at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City as the Rangers defeated the second-place North Stars by a final of 4-1.

With the win, the Rangers are now 4-1 against Traverse City on the year, and kept pace with the Alpena IceDiggers in the race for third place in the NAHL North Division. Alpena defeated Traverse City 5-1 Thursday and are now idle for the rest of the weekend.

Marquette is also 2-1 on the year against the North Division leading Mahoning Valley Phantoms.

With Friday's win the Rangers now lead in the Marquette/Traverse City Smith Barney Challenge Cup series eight points to four, with eight games remaining.

Kevin Gibson opened the scoring for Marquette at 13:13 of the first period with an unassisted effort past North Stars goaltender Brandon Stephenson. For Gibson, a native of downstate Grosse Pointe, it was his first goal in a Rangers uniform.

Traverse City would get the equalizer early in the second period when Phil Wendecker set up line-mate Sean Burke at 1:44 of the second period, but the tie would be short lived.

Dustin Partacz scored the eventual game winner three minutes and three second later for his fifth goal of the year from Michael Thompson and Garrett Ladd for a 2-1 Marquette Rangers lead.

Marquette native James Galagher would add to the Rangers lead at the 15:21 mark of the second period with the helpers credited to Ladd and Scott Henegar.

Ladd would complete his three point night at 18:05 of the third period with an empty net goal scored after Traverse City head coach Anthony Polumbo pulled Stephenson in favor of the extra attacker. Chad Pietilla assisted on the goal to add to his team leading point total of 36 points (16 goals, 20 assists) in 36 games.

Stephenson finished the evening with 21 saves on 24 Marquette shots, Dan Sullivan in net for Marquette stopped 20 of 21 shots to pick up his seventh win of the season.

The two teams wrap up their two game series Saturday evening at 7:05 PM, the game will be available to fans with streaming video and audio from B2 Networks through the teams' website www.marquetterangers.com.

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