Traverse City edges Kalamazoo in Tuesday night clash

Kalamazoo 4 @ Traverse City 5 - For just a little over five minutes on Tuesday evening, the Traverse City North Stars rivaled the blizzard outside of Centre ICE Arena. A concentrated offensive flurry – four goals in the first 6:17 of the third period – punctuated an otherwise gritty 5-4 victory over Kalamazoo.  The Stars struck early with a nifty 2-on-1 conversion from Mitchell Snider to Eric Rivard, who tapped in a perfect feed on the backhand a mere 30 seconds into the game.  The clubs entered the third frame knotted 1-1, but Jared Van Wormer redirected a rising blast from the point off the stick of Nathan Harris just :55 in. Kyle Schempp gave the Stars a 3-1 lead 1:16 later with an unassisted lamplighter.  After the K-Wings halved their deficit at 4:03 with a goal from Kyle Gattelaro, Traverse City responded in-kind a scant 25 ticks later, as Michal Toman swiped the puck and picked the upper right quadrant for his second goal in as many games.  Sean Murphy pushed the Stars’ lead to 5-2 with 13:43 to play, but Traverse City never got the chance to put it in cruise control.  Kalamazoo struck with a pair of shorthanded tallies 36 seconds apart from Danny Hamburg and Brandon Flood to accent a hotly-contested – and oft-contentious – final third.  Kyle Laslo, who drew a fighting major after a third period fracas with Wings forward Austin Hervey, made 29 saves to notch his 16th victory of the season in the Stars’ net, while Alex Okicki suffered the loss for the Jr. K-Wings, making 34 saves.  Traverse City improved to 17-11-5, and pulled to within five points of second-place Kalamazoo (21-13-2) in the NAHL North Division standings, with three games in-hand on the K-Wings. Boxscore