News Photo by James Andersen Alpena’s Colby Plowman (3) battles with Cadillac’s Justin Smith (7) for a loose puck during the first period of a Big North Conference hockey game on Friday at Northern Lights Arena.

It has been over a month since the Alpena High School hockey team earned a victory on its home ice.

The Wildcats’ recent slump continued on Friday when they dropped their Big North Conference season finale to Cadillac by a final score of 5-3 at Northern Lights Arena.

Alpena got off to a hot start and dominated the first period. The Wildcats wasted little time putting the puck in the net as Aaron Nowak scored five minutes into the period on two pretty passes from Nick Esch and Lars MacArthur to give the Wildcats an early lead.

Alpena kept the puck in the Vikings’ zone for much of the period and the Wildcats added a second goal with 6:19 left in the opening period when Esch redirected a shot from the blue line off the stick of defenseman Wade Roznowski who received a pass from Cody Summerix to give Alpena a two goal lead after a first period in which they outshot Cadillac 15-2.

“That first period was the best period that we have played in a long time. I was really excited after how we played in the first,” Alpena coach Pete Doubek said. “Penalties dictated the outcome of this game. You can’t take that many penalties and our penalty kill was not that great tonight, but I thought the effort was there all night.”

The second period was a much different story as the Wildcats spent a good portion of the period shorthanded and Cadillac took advantage.

The Vikings scored their first power play goal of the period six minutes in as Brock Taylor found the back of the net on an assist from Ben Farley.

Less than three minutes later, it looked as if Alpena had grabbed its two goal lead back, but a goal from Owen Limback was waived off due to goaltender interference and the score remained 2-1.

Cadillac tied the game with 6:30 left in the second period when Mike Gussert scored a goal on an assist from Taylor.

The Vikings cashed in on their second power play opportunity of the period when Taylor lit the lamp again on a beautifully set up play by Gussert and Farley to give Cadillac a 3-2 lead after two periods.

“Honestly there were a couple of questionable penalties in the second period. We lost a few of our top players in the period and to have them taken away was tough,” Doubek said. “I just told the guys to stay determined. I told them not to worry about the officiating and they worked toward the end and they did not want to lose this game.”

After being outshot 11-5 in the second period and losing its two-goal lead, Alpena fell behind even further when the Vikings scored another power play goal off the stick of Matt Fox midway through the period to give Cadillac a two-goal lead.

The Wildcats started to put the pressure back on in the final four minutes and cut the lead to one when Esch found the back of the net with 2:20 left on two perfect passes from Evan LeTourneau and Colby Plowman.

Alpena pulled its goalie with 1:30 left in the game, but struggled to gain possession of the puck.

Taylor was able to gain control of the puck and fired a shot from just beyond center ice that went into the empty net with 27 seconds left as Taylor recorded a hat trick and the Vikings skated away with a 5-3 victory and handed Alpena its third consecutive home loss.

“My theory is that playing at home there is a few distractions that you don’t have when playing on the road. These are young kids, but we talked about when we take the ice you have to be able to flip the switch,” Doubek said.

With the loss, Alpena falls to 14-7-2 overall on the year and finishes with a disappointing 5-4-1 BNC overall record.

The Wildcats will have a quick turnaround as they are back in action this afternoon when they travel to take on Sault Ste. Marie. in one of two remaining games of the regular season.

“We need to be on our best game against the Blue Devils. We have been good on the road and good at Sault Ste. Marie in the past,” Doubek said. “We need to simplify the game heading into the postseason. We need to play a simple game and get back to simplifying our game and if we can do that we should be in good shape.”

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.