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Getting the job done

Offense carries Flyers past Ironwood for first playoff win

News Photo by James Andersen Alpena’s Conner Allen tries to poke the puck past Ironwood goaltender Dylan Barnes during the first period of a junior hockey game on Friday at Northern Lights Arena. Alpena defeated Ironwood 9-6 in Game 1 of a best-of-three series.

It wasn’t the prettiest of games, but the Alpena Flyers managed to start the playoffs on a winning note.

Finley O’Shea scored four goals and the Flyers used a fast start to overcome comeback efforts by the Ironwood Yoopers for a 9-6 win Friday at Northern Lights Arena.

The win gives the Flyers an advantage in this best-of-three playoff series and Alpena can clinch a series victory with a win tonight.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.

After beating the Yoopers six times in eight regular season meetings, the Flyers (25-19) appeared destined for another win early on. Alpena led 4-2 after one period and raced out to an 8-2 lead in the second period, amassing eight goals in 31 minutes of play.

“I think we started well there, but kind of let up there at the end of the first. But we really took it to them in the second period, then let them get three unanswered goals,” Alpena coach Russ Anderson said.

A six-goal lead is tough to overcome in most cases, but the Yoopers gave it their best try, scoring three times to make it 8-5 after two frames.

“It was a pretty ugly game, a high-scoring game,” Anderson said. “Our defense wasn’t up to par like we thought it was going to be, but our offense did the job and get us the win.”

O’Shea finished with a five-point night and the Flyers got goals from Jay Harris, Hunter Tolsdorf, Michael Thompson and Damen McCall.

Alpena goalie Matthew Brunton made 26 saves in the win.

The Flyers trailed 2-1 midway through the first period, but picked things up in the final 10 minutes to pull ahead for good. Alpena did the majority of its damage at the front of the net, banging in rebounds when Ironwood had trouble clearing the puck.

No where was this more evident than late in the frame as Alpena netted three goals in a span of 45 seconds. With 4:03 left, McCall buried a rebound chance past Ironwood goaltender Dylan Barnes to knot the game 2-2. With 3:31 left, O’Shea gave Alpena the lead when Ironwood missed a clearing attempt. Harris completed the trifecta just 13 seconds later on a similar play.

“We make it a point to get to the front of the net, make it hard on the goaltender,” Anderson said. “It showed (because) we scored four goals, chased the first goalie out and kept going. When you have that many shots, it’s bound to start happening.”

Michael Thompson scored just 25 seconds into the game to give Alpena an early lead, but Ironwood struck back when Tyler Morrison and Justin Cain scored less than three minutes apart before Alpena’s scoring outburst.

With Barnes pulled after Harris’ goal, the Flyers kept on the attack in the middle frame. O’Shea scored his second goal with 17:07 left, lifting the puck over Ironwood backup goalie Brendan Thomas.

Less than two minutes later, Tolsdorf gave Alpena a 6-2 lead when he poked the puck past Thomas when Ironwood couldn’t clear it. Just 1:06 later, O’Shea completed his hat trick by beating Thomas with a wrist shot.

O’Shea scored again with 10:59 left, beating Thomas top shelf to put Alpena ahead 8-2.

Ironwood rebounded and put together a rally of its own in the last 10 minutes of the second period as Neal Benson (10:10), Tyler McNamara (12:57) and Kirk Coppock (15:20, power-play) scored to make it 8-5 after 40 minutes.

Any hope of a comeback by the Yoopers ended 6:02 into the third period when Conner Allen scored after banging in a rebound on the power-play.

Ironwood got one final goal from Coppock at 11:02, but the Yoopers managed just seven shots on Brunton in the final frame.

Nic Baranyai, Dean Schmanski, Jacob Hamp and Rhett Limback each had two assists for Alpena and O’Shea, Thompson, Keith Zobel and Ben McCleery each had one.

With a chance to close the series out tonight, Anderson is hopeful his team can get back to playing its style of hockey and tighten up defensively.

“Just go back to the way we play, play our team system and not try to do too much. We had a lot of guys trying to do too much, be individuals and they made us pay there a couple times,” Anderson said. “If the guys come together like I know they can, we’ll have no problem, but Ironwood’s a good team (and) you never know what to expect.”

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