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Stars Bounce Back, 4-2

March 20, 2011 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Traverse City North Stars News Release


TRENTON, Mich. - The injuries continue to mount for the Traverse City North Stars. And so do the victories.

Despite losing two more players on Sunday afternoon at the Kennedy Rec Center in downriver Detroit, the North Stars pulled out a 4-2 win over the Motor City Metal Jackets and inched closer to clinching home ice advantage for the first round of the NAHL Robertson Cup playoffs. Traverse City improved to 38-17-1, and need a single point in their final two games next weekend against Port Huron to lock up home ice as the North Division's No.2 seed for the opening round of the postseason, slated for Apr. 1-2.

On Sunday, the North Stars played without leading scorer Kelin Ainsworth, Ryan Amin, Mitchell Snider and Zack Dorer, all of whom are recovering from upper body injuries. During the contest Connor Schmidt and Robert Wiener went down. The timetable for the return of all of the injured players is still being determined.

"We won with 14 players on Friday and 14 players today," said Stars head coach/GM Anthony Palumbo. "I give our guys a lot of credit. They played smarter plays today (than in Saturday's 6-1 loss), competed a lot harder, and our special teams - which have not been playing well - were excellent today. We got our last two goals the old-fashioned way: Shooting the puck and going hard to the net."

Traverse City came back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 on Sunday, scoring the final three goals, including the last two by Jared Van Wormer (Traverse City, MI/TC Central HS). Travis White (Sterling Hts., MI/TC North Stars/Ferris State) drove home a power play goal to knot the affair 5:10 in, and Justin Scott (Detroit, MI/Fargo USHL) did likewise with 4:24 remaining in the second. Van Wormer bagged the game-winner 2:06 before the second intermission, and levied the insurance tally 5:53 into the final frame.

Steve Bolton (Las Vegas, NV/Amarillo NAHL) stopped 32 chances, as TC outshot the hosts by a 44-34 margin. Scott, Alec Shields (Pittsburgh, PA/TC North Stars/Mercyhurst College), Curtis Heinz (Grand Rapids, MI/ TC North Stars), Tim Opie (Troy, MI/TC North Stars), and Eric Rivard (Traverse City, MI/TC North Stars) handed out an assist apiece, with two for Michael Szmatula (Commerce Twp., MI/Lansing Capitals U18).

The North Stars will seek to lock up home ice on Friday, hosting Port Huron at Centre ICE Arena. Those clubs meet again on Saturday to close out the regular season slate, but Palumbo hopes to have his club's first-round plans in place by then.

"We need to win and take care of our business on Friday," he explained. "But it's not as though we could hold anybody out of either game - we simply don't have the numbers right now. I'm really not a big believer in holding guys back, anyway. We need to stay sharp, stay in a rhythm. We'll play with the same urgency we've been playing with."

Friday's series opener with the Fighting Falcons is set to face-off at 7 p.m., with the set shifting to McMorran Arena on Saturday.

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