Stars fall, 7-2

March 15, 2008 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Traverse City North Stars News Release


BOARDMAN, Oh. - There's never a good time to lose a hockey game - especially while in the thick of the playoff chase - but the Traverse City North Stars lost no ground in their postseason pursuit as a result of Saturday's 7-2 loss at Mahoning Valley.

The North Stars are still a point behind fifth-place Marquette, and two back of Team USA for the fourth and final NAHL North playoff spot after Alpena topped the Rangers and St. Louis overpowered the U-17s on Saturday.

"I guess we lost on a night when everybody else lost, too," said Stars head coach/GM Anthony Palumbo. "If you're looking for a bright spot after a loss, I guess that qualifies. We didn't lose any ground on the teams we're fighting it out with for the playoff berth."

The North Stars are now 21-20-12 with five games remaining, while Marquette (26-25-3) and Team USA (26-24-4) have just four left - but both would likely hold an advantage with the NAHL's first tiebreaker - regular season wins.

"That makes (Sunday's) game all that more critical," Palumbo said, referring to Sunday's series final matinee - while Marquette and Team USA are idle. "I don't know if mathematically it's a must-win game, but it certainly would appear to be. That's how we're looking at it."

After the Phantoms fired the opening salvo in Saturday's game, Nate Urbaniak (Perrysburg, OH/Toledo Jr B CSHL) knotted the contest with 28 seconds left in the first period. In the second, the hosts opened the floodgates, registering five goals around Urbaniak's second of the night.

Mahoning levied one more marker in the third period before the contest took a turn for the contentious. The teams combined for 25 third period penalties, including fighting majors to Stars goalkeeper Brandon Stephenson (Saline, MI/Victory Honda AAA) and Phantoms counterpart Jordan Tibbett.

In all, there were a combined 40 penalties for 133 minutes, and four players will serve compulsory one-game suspensions on Sunday for fighting inside of the five-minute mark: Stephenson, Tibbett, Traverse City's Garrett Thompson (Traverse City, MI/Soo Indians AAA), and Mahoning forward Derek Carr.

The teams will close out their 14-game regular season series on Sunday at 3 p.m. St. Louis comes to Centre ICE arena next weekend for a Friday-Saturday series that will close out the Stars' regular season home slate.



North American Hockey League Stories from March 15, 2008


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