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Shut down and out

Alpena blanked by Blue Devils in regional semifinal

News Photos by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Ben Nowak (6) skates past Gaylord’s Ian Busch (55) during the third period of a Division 3 regional semifinal hockey game on Saturday at Northern Lights Arena.

As the saying goes “it’s hard to beat a team three times in a year,” this is what the Alpena High hockey team was up against in Saturday’s Division 3 regional semifinal contest.

Unfortunately for Alpena, the third time was no charm, in fact it was the complete opposite as the Gaylord Blue Devils got some revenge on their Big North Conference foe.

After having its season ended on their home ice in the regional semifinal game last year, Gaylord (13-12) returned the favor and shut out the Wildcats 2-0 and ended their season on Alpena’s home ice at Northern Lights Arena.

“Our support tonight wasn’t great and we just didn’t adapt. We were just slow. We just didn’t play our style of hockey and we were on our heels all night. Tonight wasn’t our night and that’s what happens in sports sometimes. You’re ready, but for whatever reason it just doesn’t happen,” Alpena coach Chris Limback said. “I thought Gaylord’s best outplayed our best and that’s what wins and loses hockey games.”

The Blue Devils opened the game in a trap defense and didn’t allow Alpena (11-14-2) many chances, but Gaylord didn’t create many chances themselves as both team spend the first few minutes of the game feeling each other out, with not much end-to-end action.

Both sides killed off a penalty and the Wildcats killed off a pair in the first.

The best scoring chance in the period came midway through the period, but the opportunity was denied as Collin Lightfoot made a big save on a Blue Devils breakaway chance to keep the game scoreless after one period.

The game had a feel early on that the first goal of the game would be huge for either side.

The Wildcats were slow once again in the opening minutes of the second period and Limback called a timeout six and a half minutes into the second to help his team focus and light a spark because Alpena was getting outskated, outworked and outplayed.

Unfortunately for Alpena, the timeout didn’t do much help as the Blue Devils kept applying pressure and the Wildcats couldn’t clear the zone and eventually it cost them as Gaylord captain Sam Gorno controlled the puck just inside the blue line and sent a wrist shot toward Lightfoot and into the back of the night to break a scoreless with 9:15 to go in the second period.

“We didn’t jump on the puck and we gave Gaylord too much time with the puck and it doesn’t matter who you play, when you give them time and space, they’re going to make plays. That was our weakness tonight, we just weren’t willing to get that second man in to create,” Limback said. “We were in and out of a zone real easy. We didn’t put them (Gaylord) in a position where they could make mistakes. I thought they did a good job capitalizing on our mistakes tonight. That’s hockey and they were just a better team tonight.”

Alpena went on the power play two minutes after allowing the goal and for the first time, applied heavy pressure on the Blue Devils. After a pair of Gaylord penalties, the Wildcat spent nearly four minutes on the power play and had a few second where they were on a two-man advantage.

Alpena peppered goalie Austin Sitz with shots, but Sitz was solid in net and the Wildcats were unable to get enough traffic out in front of Sitz to make stopping shots more difficult.

The Wildcats were unsuccessful on the power play despite several gold opportunities to tie the game.

Moments after Gaylord killed off the penalties, the Blue Devils took the momentum back in a big way as Gabe Kleinsorge got behind the Wildcat defense and made a nice move around Lightfoot to put the Blue Devils up 2-0 with 2:37 to play in the second period.

“It was a great hockey atmosphere and we needed to do something to get that crowd because we needed some life. Our crowd was ready, but tonight just wasn’t our night to get that goal we needed,” Limback said. “It was an amazing run and great atmosphere. Obviously we wanted to get to Wednesday, but it just wasn’t our night tonight and it’s always sad when the season ends, but from where we started to where we ended was great for the kids.”

Up a pair of goals, Gaylord went in defense mode in the third period and didn’t allow Alpena many good looks.

The Wildcats saw one of their final chances to cut into the lead and have a chance get blocked by Colton Hurst who prevented a potential goal after Alpena’s Blaise Keller fired a shot from the point that could have found its way into the back of the net if it wasn’t for Hurst.

The Wildcats pulled Lightfoot with two minutes left and their final scoring chance came with 30 seconds left when Tanner Orban send a shot over Sitz’s left shoulder, but the puck hit the crossbar and deflected out and the Blue Devils were able to shut Alpena out for the first time in 24 games as the Wildcats hadn’t been blanked since second game of the season.

“Regardless of who is coaching next year, they have a good nucleus of people coming back. Again, I’ll always sit down. I look forward to getting healthy again and getting back to full strength and I just have to see what’s best for myself, the team, my wife, there’s just a lot of things to factor in,” Limback said. “Tonight was a tough loss and you never make a decision after that, but I’ll sit down and there’s a great nucleus of kids, Collin (Lightfoot) coming back, whoever is coaching will do just fine.”

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