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Stars claim 40th victory

March 26, 2011 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Traverse City North Stars News Release


PORT HURON - They say life begins at 40. The Traverse City North Stars hope that axiom proves true.

With a 3-2 shootout victory over the Port Huron Fighting Falcons on Saturday evening at McMorran Arena, the Stars closed out the most successful regular season in the club's six-year history and reached the 40-win plateau for the first time.

"Yeah it (the number) means something to me," said TC head coach/GM Anthony Palumbo. "It means we had some successes and worked hard. We know there's an even heavier load ahead in the playoffs, but when it comes time to reflect on the season, getting to 40 wins will mean something."

Port Huron grabbed leads of 1-0 in the first period and 2-1 in the second after a Mitchell Snider (Traverse City, MI/TC West HS) goal in between that briefly put the North Stars on equal footing. Jared Van Wormer (Traverse City, MI/TC Central HS) knotted the contest again 6:59 into the third stanza, setting up a scoreless overtime and subsequent shootout.

In the decisive session, Alec Shields (Pittsburgh, PA/TC North Stars/Mercyhurst College) and Sean Murphy (Cary, NC/Austin NAHL) converted shootout attempts as the fourth- and fifth-round entries, with Tyler Marble (Howell, MI/TC North Stars/Lake Superior St.) slamming the door in the fifth to seal the triumph.

"Port Huron came out and took it to us," Palumbo said. "They had a nice crowd, nice energy, and we didn't put forth a whole lot of effort for two periods, either. We decided to play with a little more passion in the third period, got a timely goal from Jared, missed three or four unbelievable chances, and got some big saves from Tyler when we needed them."

Marble improved to 25-14-1, and set a new team mark for regular season victories, surpassing the old benchmark of 24 set last season by Drew Strandberg. He stopped 30 shots and pared his goals-against average to 2.88. Curtis Heinz (Grand Rapids, MI/TC North Stars) and Tim Opie (Troy, MI/TC North Stars) assisted on Snider's goal, while Shields set up Van Wormer.

Traverse City, which finished the year at 40-17-1, will await the winner of Sunday's Janesville-Michigan finale in the opening round of the Robertson Cup playoffs. The teams are tied for third place heading into the last day of the season. The Stars will host the first two games of the North Division semifinals next weekend at Centre ICE Arena, with the next two games of the best-of-five series the following weekend. If a fifth and deciding game is warranted, it will be back at Centre ICE on Sunday, April 10.

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