Stars Take Round Three, 5-3

Published on March 21, 2010 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Traverse City North Stars News Release


TRAVERSE CITY - With just three games remaining in the 2009-10 regular season, the Traverse City North Stars are right where everyone wants to be - in control of their own destiny.

After a come-from-behind 5-3 victory over Marquette on Sunday afternoon in the final installment of a three-game series at Centre ICE arena, the North Stars are two points ahead of the Rangers in the NAHL North Division with the postseason just around the corner. Third- place Janesville is five points back with a game-in-hand.

"Show me a single human being who doesn't want to be able to control their own destiny," said North Stars head coach/GM Anthony Palumbo. "It's just human nature. Unfortunately, our road is not an easy one. This was just one game, and we still have to go up there to their building on Thursday - a place where we haven't experienced a lot of success."

On Sunday, the host Stars got out to a 1-0 lead in the first period when Kyle Jean (Sault Ste. Marie, MI/TC North Stars/Lake Superior St.) put back a Chris Salomone (Homer Glen, IL/TC North Stars) rebound 4:16 in. The Rangers scored the next three goals to grab a 3-1 lead just 1:25 into the second stanza after Brett Bain levied his second marker of the contest, but a power play goal from Chris Heineman (New Boston, MI/TC North Stars) just over a minute later started the comeback. Traverse City outshot the Rangers by a gaping 14-3 margin in the middle frame, and 13-4 in the final period, while Eric Rivard (Traverse City, MI/TC West HS) scored a lopsided fisticuffs victory over Scott Henegar to get things rolling in the third. Alec Shields (Pittsburgh, PA/Pittsburgh Predators U18) drove home the equalizing goal 5:07 into the last session, Heineman delivered the game-winner at 8:17, and Tim Opie (Troy, MI/TC North Stars) offered an insurance marker at the 10-minute mark to make it a 5-3 final score.

Drew Strandberg (Thunder Bay, ONT/Thunder Bay SIJHL) stopped 12 of 15 shots, and tied a TC team single-season team mark with his 22nd victory of the season, improving to 22-9-2.

"If we've learned anything the last two games, it's that we can be successful when we play a team-first game," added Palumbo, whose team was humbled 7-1 on Friday in the series opener before a 7-3 win of their own on Saturday, and Sunday's series-clincher. "We had a lot of chances today, their guy (Kevin Kissaw) made some unbelievable saves, and we just kept coming after him. The part I liked best was that even though we were down, and we dominated the second period, we didn't change. We kept doing the things that we were doing well, and eventually we were able to break through."

Ten players from Traverse City dished out one assist apiece: Heineman, Opie, Shields, Rivard, Salomone, Andy Huff (Howell, MI/ Honeybaked U18/Ferris St.), Garrett Thompson (Traverse City, MI/TC North Stars), Nick Shkreli (Romeo, MI/Mahoning Valley NAHL), Doug Clifford (Woodhaven, MI/Mahoning Valley NAHL), and Kelin Ainsworth (Thunder Bay, ONT/Ft. William SIJHL).

The North Stars (31-19-5) visit Marquette for a 7:30 p.m. jump-off on Thursday, followed by the regular season home finale on Friday against Alpena. TC will close out the regular seasons late on Saturday at Alpena.

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North American Hockey League Stories from March 21, 2010


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