News Sports Photo by Jonny zawacki Alpena’s Rhett Limback (8) makes a move on Ironwood goaltender Spencer Gill and scores during the first period of a junior hockey game on Sunday at Northern Lights Arena.

After wrapping up home ice in the first round of the playoffs with a 5-2 win over Ironwood on Saturday, the Alpena Flyers kept up their solid play and came away with a 5-3 victory over the Yoopers on Saturday at Northern Lights Arena.

“Having home ice is huge. That was our one goal at the beginning of the season, it’s been one team with one goal to get home ice which is something this franchise hasn’t had and I think this place will be rocking next weekend,” Alpena coach Russ Anderson said.

Despite spending much of the first period in the penalty box and being shorthanded for 16 of the first 20 minutes of the game, Alpena did a solid job on the penalty kill and scored the first goal of the game when Rhett Limback scored a shorthanded goal to put the Flyers ahead midway through the period.

Alpena was able to kill off all but one penalty as the Yoopers tied the game with just under three minutes left in the period when Cale Bowman took advantage of a power play opportunity and scored a goal of his own as Ironwood was finally able to get one past Alpena goalie Trevor McConnell who played exceptional in the opening period, stopping 16 shots and both teams went into the first intermission tied at one.

“We have really worked on our penalty kill and it’s been huge for us the past few games and our guys have a lot of confidence no matter who we throw out there,” Anderson said. “Without Trevor in net for that first period it could have been a lot different because he came up huge for us and the guys just bought in after that opening period.”

Just under seven minutes into the second period, Alpena regained its lead when Nic Baranyai blasted a shot from the blue line that went past everyone and ended up in the back of the net as the Flyers were able to take advantage of a power play opportunity of their own.

Alpena took a two goal lead with 7:56 left in the second when Limback added his second goal of the game and the Flyers scored their second power play goal of the period when Baranyai and Conner Allen set up Limback for a pretty goal to help Alpena take a two goal lead into the third period.

The Yoopers quickly cut the lead back to one scoring a goal three minutes into the third period on another power play goal.

Alpena regained its two goal lead with another power play goal with 7:24 left to play when Allen found the back of the net on assists from Baranyai and Jacob Hamp.

Ironwood wasted little time answering back with its third and final goal of the game 17 seconds later on the power play after the Flyers were charged with an unsportsmanlike conduct after the goal.

The Yoopers did all they could the rest of the period, but the final blow came with 5:47 left to play when Hamp eluded two Ironwood defenders and made a perfect pass to a wide open Ben McCleery for the goal to again put the Flyers up by two and skate away with another huge victory.

“We had fourth placed locked up no matter what after our win yesterday and we knew coming into the game today that Ironwood’s emotions were going to be a little high before playoffs, but I thought our guys handled themselves pretty well for the most part and it was nice to pick up another big win,” Anderson said.

With the two weekend victories, Alpena finished the regular season 24-19 overall and are currently tied with Motor City with 49 points.

The Flyers face two possible scenerios with Motor City and Tri City set to play a makeup game tomorrow. if Motor City wins, Alpena would remain the four seed and host Ironwood in the first round of the playoffs starting on Friday in a best of three format. If Tri City were to upset Motor City, the Flyers would jump into third place and host Kalkaska in the first round on Friday.

“We’ll be getting some bodies back next week so it will be the same hard nose physical play from everyone and we’ll be excited to get back in action and host a playoff game against whoever it may be next weekend,” Anderson said.