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Supernova: Stars combust for 8-1 triumph

January 17, 2009 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Traverse City North Stars News Release


WYANDOTTE - Back on Dec. 21, the Traverse City North Stars grabbed an early 4-0 lead over the Motor City Machine, only to see the hosts storm back for a 6-4 victory. On Saturday at Yack Arena, the North Stars assumed the same 4-0 edge over the Machine, but kept the accelerator depressed this time and rolled to an 8-1 victory in the teams' final contest before the NAHL All-Star break.

Stars captain Kyle Bonis (Lindsay, ONT/TC North Stars) led the way with a pair of goals, while Garrett Thompson (Traverse City, MI/TC North Stars) dished out a trio of assists - his first career ‘playmaker' - to power the Stars' offense.

"I think we built off our solid third period (last Saturday) against Marquette and it just kind of carried through," said TC head coach/ GM Anthony Palumbo, whose team enjoyed its highest scoring output of the season. "C.J. (Motte) made the stops he had to make, and from there out we played a total team game, and our best, most complete 60- minute effort in a long time."

Marc Thompson (Traverse City, MI/TC North Stars) scored the lone goal of the first period, giving Traverse a lead it would not relinquish a mere 5:14 into the contest. By the middle of the second period, the Stars' bulge had swelled to four goals on an unassisted tally by Kyle Jean (Sault Ste. Marie, MI/TC North Stars) at 5:31 and a back-to- back Bonis lamplighters. After the Machine chimed in near the end of the second stanza, TC opened the spigot for four coffin nails - by Josh Miller (Trenton, MI/Trenton HS), Mike Schenfeld (Littleton, CO/ Lake Forest Academy Prep), Chris Salomone (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Young Americans AAA), and Sean Burke (Traverse City, MI/TC North Stars). It was Schenfeld's first career junior goal.

"It's always nice to get so many contributions from so many different guys - and at both ends of the ice," Palumbo continued. "Heck, even our bus driver gets one of the three stars. The highways were just terrible, and we pulled into the arena about 25 minutes before warm-ups."

Eight different players had at least one assist apiece - including Tyler Stephens (Rockford, MI/TC North Stars) who had two: Schenfeld, Miller, Travis White (Sterling Heights, MI/St. Louis NAHL), Nate Urbaniak (Perrysburg, OH/TC North Stars), Eric McLintock (Traverse City, MI/TC North Stars), and Jarrod LaBelle (Bay City, MI/TC North Stars). Motte made 23 saves for his 10th win of the campaign.

With the win, Traverse City improved to 20-9-5 and pulled to within two points of first-place Mahoning Valley in the NAHL North Division standings. Motor City fell to 6-27-1

Five Traverse City players - Bonis, Jean, Urbaniak, White and Chris Heineman (New Boston, MI/TC North Stars) - along with Palumbo - will head to Ann Arbor for the Jan. 18-20 NAHL Top Prospects all-star event to represent the North Division.

"We got to keep most of those guys off the ice for the last eight or nine minutes (on Saturday), so hopefully they're that much fresher for the all-star games and next weekend against Marquette. I'm not sure fatigue is really a huge factor at this point anyway. It seems like we just got back from a nice, long Christmas break."

The North Stars will welcome third-place Marquette to Centre ICE on Friday and Saturday evenings. Both contests face-off at 7 p.m.

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