After winning two of three in their first series of the season, the Alpena Flyers returned to the ice this weekend and dropped two of three to the Decatur Blaze.

Alpena won the opener on Friday 4-1 and lost 9-4 on Saturday and 3-2 on Sunday in a shootout.

Alpena (3-2-1) came out firing on Friday and put away the Blaze in the third period with a pair of goals from Noah Van Dusen. He scored an even strength goal at 12:16 and added an empty netter in the final minute.

Andrew Thiem’s power-play goal at 10:39 gave Alpena an early lead in the first period, but the Blaze tied the game at 18:35 for a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes.

Alpena took the lead for good when Hunter Tolsdorf scored at 6:15 in the second period. The Flyers outshot Decatur 31-14 for the game.

Alpena goalie Matthew Brunton made 13 saves and Thiem, Rhett Limback, Michael Thompson, Conner Allen and Nic Baranyai each had one assist.

Despite a similar number of shots on goal, Decatur got the jump on Alpena early on Saturday, taking a 4-1 lead after one period.

Decatur led 7-3 after the second period and added two more goals in the final 20 minutes.

Damen McCall’s goal tied the game at 6:18 in the first period, but Decatur lit the lamp three more times before the end of the frame.

Van Dusen scored at 2:56 in the second period to make it 4-2 and Tolsdorf scored shorthanded at 7:45 to cut the deficit to 6-3.

Allen scored Alpena’s final goal at 9:31 in the third period on the power play.

Joey Starcevich scored four goals for Decatur and Luka Znidarsic and Patrick Kelly each scored twice.

Daniel Lofstrom and Trevor McConnell split time in net, combining for 15 saves and nine goals allowed.

Limback (2), Baranyai (3) and Thiem each had assists.

On Sunday, the Flyers battled back from a 2-0 deficit with two third period goals. Allen scored on the power-play at 5:20 and Dean Schmanski scored at 18:27, but the Blaze prevailed in a shootout.

Lofstrom made 24 saves in the loss and Jensen Saddler had Alpena’s only assist.

Alpena hosts the Traverse City for two games this weekend. Saturday’s game starts at 7 p.m. and Sunday’s game starts at 2 p.m.