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Alpena blanks Trojans; ties program record for wins

News Photo by Owen Kinzey Traverse City Central’s Koen Burkholder skates in on Alpena netminder Aidan Schultz during a regional semifinal hockey game on Saturday at Northern Lights Arena.

ALPENA — Come playoff time, everything matters and even with additional pressure, the Alpena High School hockey team prevailed on Saturday.

Alpena defeated Traverse City Central in a Division 2 regional semifinal by a final score of 5-0 at Northern Lights Arena.

Not only did this victory keep the Wildcats’ playoff run alive, but this win tied the school record for most wins in a season with 23.

The Wildcats tied a program record of 23 wins to match the win totals of the 1980-81, 1981-82, 1983-84 and 2018-19 Alpena teams.

The Wildcats play Marquette for the regional championship on Wednesday.

Cam Young had a hat trick for Alpena (23-3) and Ian Lightfoot and James Kuhl had single tallies.

This commanding win is a tremendous confidence and morale booster going into Alpena’s most formidable challenge yet against Marquette.

“Winning a game 5-0 against a really talented Traverse City Central team is huge for us going into our next game. Marquette is going to be a grind and we’re going to have to play our best hockey in order to compete with them,” Alpena coach Ben Henry said.

Under three minutes into the game, Alpena and the incredible Northern Lights Arena crowd went wild.

An early mistake by Central led to a Wildcat goal and the 1-0 lead. James Kuhl received credit for the goal after he shot the puck into a Trojan player that ricocheted perfectly into the net.

The rest of the first period was filled with outstanding saves from Central goalie Brady Faille and Alpena netminder Aidan Schultz.

By the end of the first period, Alpena only had six shots on net compared to Central’s 10, but the Wildcats had the lead.

Going into the second period, Alpena put itself in a tough position. Two Alpena players were sent to the penalty box leaving a 5-on-3 advantage for the Trojans.

Exceptional defense was played by the Wildcats during the two-minute disadvantage and Alpena escaped the second period still holding the lead.

“Schultz has been amazing for us all year long, but he really saved us a few times in both the first and second periods. The 5-on-3 was great defense by everybody and Schultz deserves a ton of credit for shutting them down all night,” Henry said.

Even though Alpena’s defense was excellent the entire night, the offense had slowed completely. That was until the third period when the Wildcats’ offense exploded.

Young began his natural hat trick at 12:32 where he scored his first goal of the night. Young’s goal was assisted by Luke Miller and Gavin Winterstein and gave Alpena a 2-0 lead.

The lead was extended just over two minutes later with another goal from Young. This time the goal was assisted by Anden Marceau and Reid Meinhardt to take the 3-0 lead.

Just another 17 seconds later, Young scored again. This goal secured the win and left the crowd erupting.

Alpena’s offense was not done yet. Lightfoot got on the scoresheet with a goal of his own with 6:13 left in the game. Harrison Kaszubowski finished with the assist on Lightfoot’s goal and capped off the 5-0 win.

“That third period is the best version of hockey we play. We really started to put pucks on the net with some purpose and we got some good goals out of it. We also didn’t let our foot off the gas pedal which is the way I’ve been coaching all year. But overall, I’m thrilled with how we played tonight,” Henry said.

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