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Flyers complete weekend sweep of Tri City

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Nic Baranyai (22) and Tri City’s Tyler Bourassa (96) race for a loose puck during a junior hockey game on Saturday at Northern Lights Arena.

The Alpena Flyers couldn’t have asked for a better time to put together one of their best performances of the season as they shut out Tri City 6-0 on Military Appreciation night, Saturday at Northern Lights Arena.

“I think we were ready for the challenge tonight. We came out and knew it was going to be a big crowd and fun crowd to play in front of and we really stepped up our game tonight,” Alpena coach Russ Anderson said.

The Flyers wasted little time feeding off of the energy from a jam packed home crowd as Dean Schmanski lit the lamp just over six minutes into the game on an assist from Conner Allen.

Alpena scored its second goal with 1:33 left in the opening period as Jacob Hamp received a pass from Jay Harris and put it into the back of the net and gave the Flyers a 2-0 heading into the second period.

The game began to get chippy as both teams got into it early as Alpena’s Damen McCall and Tri City’s Christopher Seelye were ejected for fighting late in the first period.

The Flyers took advantage of a power-play opportunity and scored a minute into the second period as Schmanski buried his second goal of the game on an assist from Rhett Limback.

Alpena added two more goals late in the period by Jensen Saddler and Noah Van Dusen as Hamp and Nic Baranyai picked up an assist apiece to help the Flyers extend its lead to 5-0.

Alpena controlled the entire way and a frustrated Icehawks team continued to do its best to provoke the home team by starting a handful of fights late in the second and early in the third period as Montana Shoup and Dylan Ryan were ejected for Tri City.

The Flyers kept their composure and continued playing smart hockey and scored the final goal of the game when Schmanski netted his third goal to record the hat trick on assists from Limback and Allen.

“Any time you have a game that lopsided it tends to get a bit chippy,” Anderson said. “I just told my guys to keep their head and stay disciplined because we have three big games next weekend.”

The Flyers improve to 18-12 overall with the win and are in third place in the Midwest division with just one point separating them from Motor City and Ironwood.

Alpena will play host to Traverse City on Friday before games against Motor City on Saturday and Sunday.

“Playing all of these big games at home next weekend will be nice,” Anderson said. “We realize how close the standings are and we’re excited for the games we have at home next weekend.”

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.

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