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Stars grab Game Two, 4-0

April 3, 2010 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Traverse City North Stars News Release


TRAVERSE CITY - A couple of early goals, a couple of late goals, a playoff playmaker, and brickwalling birthday boy combined to give the Traverse City North Stars a 4-0 victory over Janesville on Saturday night, and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five NAHL North Division semifinals.

Garrett Thompson (Traverse City, MI/TC North Stars) potted a pair of first period goals 4:27 and 8:20 into the contest, Eric McLintock (Traverse City, MI/TC North Stars) and Bo Jacobs (Twin Lake, MI/TC North Stars) tallied with 5:07 and 2:10 to play, Nick Shkreli (Romeo, MI/Mahoning Valley NAHL) served up a trio of assists, and Drew Strandberg (Thunder Bay, ONT/Thunder Bay SIJHL) celebrated his 21st birthday by collecting all 18 shots he faced in authoring the shutout.

"Unlike Friday night, we came out and had a very good first period tonight," said Stars head coach/GM Anthony Palumbo, whose team outshot the visiting Jets by an 11-3 margin through the first stanza, and 27-10 after two. "We did get a little sloppy there in the second (period), but we got back to playing positionally in the third to close it out with a solid team effort."

The series will shift to Janesville next weekend, with the North Stars looking to advance in the playoffs for the first time in three tries. A decisive fifth game would be played on Monday, April 12 back at Centre ICE arena at 7 p.m.

"It'll be a whole different game down there," Palumbo cautioned. "They have their backs to the wall, and you can never count out a team that's as good as they are. They'll be ready to go."

Strandberg has permitted just one goal through the first two playoff contests, boasting an infinitesimal 0.50 goals-against average and robust .977 save percentage.

"Hey, it's the playoffs, and you need to have a guy making those big saves," Palumbo said. "Any team that has experienced playoff success has done so getting solid goaltending, and Drew's making those big saves for us right now."

Doug Clifford (Woodhaven, MI/Mahoning Valley NAHL) set up both Thompson goals, with Mike Yanis (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI/Owatonna NAHL) drawing an assist on the first and Shkreli on the second. Shkreli and Andy Huff (Howell, MI/Honeybaked U18/Ferris St.) were credited with assists on McLintock's third career playoff goal, with Shkreli and McLintock teaming up on Jacob's lamplighter.

"What I like is the team game we're playing right now," Palumbo added. "If we want to be successful and advance, we have to put aside those individual goals and keep playing the five-man game."



North American Hockey League Stories from April 3, 2010


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