BAY CITY — The Alpena Flyers suffered one of their most frustrating defeats of the season as they dominated and controlled much of the game against Tri City, but fell to the Icehawks by a final score of 3-2.

Alpena opened the scoring just over three minutes into the game as Mike Thompson scored a power play goal on assists from Hunter Tolsdorf and Keith Zobel.

The Flyers held the one goal lead for the rest of the period, but Tri City tied the game under two minutes into the second period as Terrence Gillard scored on an assist from Jacob Borowski.

Both teams went into the locker rooms tied at at one goal apiece after two periods.

The Icehawks wasted little time scoring just over a minute and a half into the third period as Gillard capitalized on a power play opportunity and scored his second goal of the game on an assist from goaltender Philippe Benchley who ended up playing a critical role in Tri City’s victory.

Benchley continued to hold strong in net and the Icehawks took a two goal lead with under four minutes to play on a goal from Patrick Stanislawski who was assisted by Tyler Bourassa.

The Flyers did all they could to come back and they were able to cut into the lead and make it a one goal game with less than a minute left as Jacob Hamp lit the lamp on assists from Rhett Limback and Nic Baranyai, but Alpena was unable to get the tying goal and despite outshooting Tri City 31-15, they fell in what was a frustrating night for the Flyers as Benchley played strong between the pipes in helping the Icehawks down Alpena.

With the loss, Alpena falls to 19-15 overall on the year and drop to fifth place in the Midwest division. Every game is important down the stretch as three points separate the Flyers, Motor City and Ironwood for third place.

Alpena will finish the weekend trip with the final game against the last place Icehawks today.