News File Photo Alpena’s Anden Marceau chases Gaylord’s Isaac Hopp to a puck during a Big North Conference hockey game at Northern Lights Arena on January 15. The Wildcats won both regular season meetings against the Blue Devils this season and will host Gaylord tonight at 7 p.m. in a Division 3 regional semifinal final matchup.

A year ago, Alpena and Gaylord met in a Division 3 regional semifinal contest at the Otsego County Sportsplex in Gaylord.

Despite an early Blue Devils goal, the end result saw the Wildcats skating away victorious by a score of 3-1 on Gaylord’s home ice, ending the Blue Devils’ season.

Alpena went on to win its first regional title since the 2006-2007 season.

Gaylord certainly remembers last year and tonight the Blue Devils are hoping to avenge last season’s loss, while Alpena is hoping for continued success against its Big North Conference rival and to resume its defense of their regional crown.

Tonight, Alpena (11-13-2) will host Gaylord (12-12) at 7 p.m. as the two teams will meet in a Division 3 regional semifinal contest with a berth in the regional championship game hanging in the balance.

In two meetings this year, Alpena earned a pair of victories over its conference foe, winning by scores of 4-1 and 4-2.

Despite Alpena getting the better of the Blue Devils in four of the past five meetings, over the past two years, head coach Chris Limback and the Wildcats understand that it can be difficult to beat the same team three times in the same season.

“We have to keep their big guys off the board. They have several key top-of-the-line players and we have to keep an eye on their big guys. We have to be smart when we’re on the ice, take care of the puck and when we get chances, we have to get pucks on net and keep it simple,” Limback said.

The Wildcats opened postseason play with a 4-1 victory over Cheboygan on Wednesday, but it took time for Alpena to get going in that contest and shake some playoff jitters.

A pair of third period goals were enough to put the game out of reach and advance the Wildcats to tonight’s contest against a Gaylord team that was awaiting the winner after receiving a bye.

“I think it’s huge to have a game under our belt. For a teenager, one of the hardest things is when you sit on time and just wait. Gaylord I’m sure is itching to get playing, we’re glad we got that game in so now we can kind of relax. We’re lucky to practice the next two days. I’m sure Gaylord was watching the scores tonight waiting to see who they would play. It’s just a lot of mental energy wasted,” Limback said. “We got to play, we know what we did well, we know where we struggled and those are things we can sure up. We don’t want to have to go into Saturday’s game with it being our first game and having to make quick adjustments and changes. We already have that one under our belt so we’re looking forward to it and we’re already ready. We know what it’s like to play in front of a crowd now and in playoff atmosphere, Saturday’s crowd will be bigger and better. I really like where we’re at right now.”

Despite having two victories this season over the Blue Devils, it will be important for the Wildcats to take control of the game early and not allow Gaylord to hang around and build too much momentum of its own.

It’s been a wild month for the Blue Devils, especially for captain Sam Gorno.

Gorno was part of a scary incident that occurred while Gaylord was playing in a weekend showcase in Iron Mountain on February 8.

The Blue Devils lost to Kingsford 8-2 that day, but the loss was overshadowed by a sad and unfortunate moment that happened during the game when a Kingsford player swung his stick like a bat and connected with the back of Gorno’s head and sent the captain’s helmet flying and body face first to the ice where Gorno was knocked out and suffered multiple injuries.

Despite the scary incident, Gorno has thankfully made a recovery and returned to the ice for Gaylord’s regular season finale.

Gorno and the Blue Devils have had a week to prepare mentally and physically for tonight’s regional semifinal contest against the Wildcats.

Alpena will need to keep close tabs on Gorno, leading goal scorer Colton Hurst, top point-getter Ian Busch and the Kleinsorge brothers, Gabe and Nate as all five can be dangerous with the puck.

“As a coach and a dad and knowing the Gorno family, I’m just happy that he’s able to play again. It was a scary situation and at the end of the day it’s a game and you never want to see anyone injured and that could have really been a terrible injury for him. We’re happy that he’s playing, we’re happy that he’s healthy,” Limback said. “We just want to come out and play their best and we want to play our best and see which team advances. I like only having to drive 10 minutes rather than an hour and 10 minutes, so I again I like where we’re at, now we just have to take advantage of it.”

The Wildcats not only come in with a pair of victories this season over their opponent tonight, but Alpena has won 10 of its last 14 games overall and has had players step up into key roles and it continued in the opening round victory.

Goaltender Colin Lightfoot was once again strong between the pipes. Lightfoot earned the victory in Alpena’s 4-1 win over Gaylord at Northern Lights Arena on January 15, stopping 19 of the 20 shots he faced.

If Lightfoot can keep up his strong play in net and Tanner Orban can continue his torrid pace, Alpena will be in good shape.

Orban has registered a point in 10 of his past 11 games, including 12 goals during that stretch. Orban found the back of the net four times in two games against the Blue Devils this season and he tallied a pair of goals in the first round regional matchup against Cheboygan.

If Lightfoot, Orban, Anden Marceau, Blaise Keller, Evan Kraenzlein and Mitch Agius can build off of strong performances in the playoff opener, the Wildcats will have a strong chance of playing for its second regional championship in as many years.