Marquette Rangers Hockey

MARQUETTE — The Marquette Rangers Tier II Junior hockey team played an exciting third period of hockey against the Alpena IceDiggers at Lakeview Arena here Saturday night.

But it was too little, too late as the Rangers spotted Alpena three goals in the first two periods and watched the IceDiggers skate off with a 3-2 North American Hockey League win.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” Rangers coach Randy Enders said of the loss. “In a big game like tonight’s, you can’t come out and walk through the first period and a half and then expect to play well in one period and win.

“It doesn’t happen, and in this league and this division, you can’t show up for one period and be successful. Unfortunately that’s what happened.”

After a lackluster first two stanzas in which Marquette (26-25-3) managed only one goal — by Jake Watchorn — the Rangers broke out in the third, played physical and got another goal to make the game close.

“We came out hard in the third and battled hard to the end, but when you spot a team like that two periods, you’re setting yourself up for failure,” Enders said.

“It was our plan from the beginning to be physical, (but) we just couldn’t get it going until the third. In the third, the guys came out hard, and that was the game we were looking for.

“We needed three periods of that, and got one period,” he added. “Obviously, in this league, you’re not going to win with a one-period performance.”

Jake Hannon scored a power-play marker for the Rangers at 12:16 of the final period and it looked as though Marquette had a chance at knotting the game at 3-3, but it never got a good shot at the net.

“The team that played in the third is the team we’re looking for and the team we need to be coming into the end of the regular season,” Enders said.

Earlier in the game it looked like the Rangers were going to close the 3-1 Alpena advantage to 3-2 as Josh Bussell fired a net burner at IceDiggers’ goalie Nick Graves at 11:14 of the second period.

The goal light flashed red, but play continued for a few moments before the action was stopped for a review. It was ruled no goal.

“It was a questionable call,” Enders said. “It was in and out and was an absolute rocket that Buss fired that popped in and out. We thought it went in, they (the officials) didn’t.

“It was just one of those things that, in this game, you have to play through bounces, and you have to play through the good ones and the bad ones.

“Sometimes,” he said, “ you get the bounces, and sometimes you don’t. We didn’t get it this time.”

Scoring for Alpena were Jon Puskar in the first period and J.C. Gulch on a power play late in the opening stanza, as well as Puskar early in the second.

Graves finished with 26 saves between the pipes for Alpena, while Beau Christian stopped 21 shots for the Rangers.

After splitting the two-game weekend series with the IceDiggers (28-22-5), the Rangers still have a shot at making the final slot for the NAHL playoffs.

“It’s still tight, and we’re still in the race for that last spot (in the playoffs). “We have to come out in the next two weekends and play well,” Enders said.

“We’ll look to build off the solid period that we wrapped the weekend up on, and we need to play like that coming into USA next weekend, and then finish up at home against Traverse City.”

The Rangers get set to travel to Ann Arbor for a pair of games March 21-22. Gametimes are at 7:30pm on Friday night and 7:00pm Saturday.

Life is short, do what makes you happy, watch Rangers hockey.