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  • Traverse City's Kyle Jean (10) celebrates as he slides into the boards after scoring in Friday's 5-4 win.

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March 20, 2009

North Stars win in shootout

BY JAMES COOK

TRAVERSE CITY — It was nothing fancy, but it probably looked like one of the prettiest shots Anthony Palumbo has seen in awhile.

David Johnstone skated in and rocketed a wrist shot past Team USA goalie Brandon Maxwell to lift the Traverse City North Stars to a 5-4 shootout win as the league schedule winds down and playoff home-ice advantage is at stake.

Johnstone had a little help from Palumbo before he went out as the final shootout skater with the game on the line.

“He said, ‘His glove’s looking a little slow,’” Johnstone said. “It worked out pretty well. I was just trying to keep it simple because the ice was bad.”

Johnstone’s shot whistled above Maxwell’s shoulder and into the net for the victory.

The victory was nice, but in the end TC wanted more.

There’s a time when a win is a loss. This wasn’t exactly one of those times, but it’s not much of a stretch to see it that way.

With the USA U-17s scratching out a point against TC and the 18s beating Alpena 4-1, Team USA (32-15-5) posted three points to the North Stars’ two on the night, moving USA a point up on Traverse City (31-17-6) for second place in the North Division.

“Ultimately, we needed to win in regulation,” Palumbo said. “But we’re at a point where we need to be playing well, and we did that tonight.”

Kyle Jean — who had already scored two goals — evidently didn’t need any advice.

“I was like, ‘Coach, what do I do?’ and he said, ‘Score,’” Jean recalled before he notched TC’s first shootout goal. “I said, ‘Thanks.’”

But that’s what he did, faking the forehand, faking a backhand and then going back for the forehand for a leaning shot that had Maxwell totally juked.

Jean knotted the shootout at 1-1 and Kyle Bonis’s shot hit the post and went in off Maxwell. USA’s Luke Moffat — who will be Johnstone’s adversary for quite awhile as Johnstone is headed to Michigan State and Moffat to Michigan — put the shootout in a deadlock with his goal to set up Johnstone’s heroics.

The first and second periods were about as opposite as could be.

Team USA controlled much of the first, leaving with a 1-0 lead on the first of two Nick Shore goals for the night. The U-17s outshot TC 12-7, but it took a Stars surge late in the period to draw that deficit closer.

“Sometimes we just come out flat in the first period,” Jean said. “I don’t know why, but we seem to do that. We just went in the locker room and focused.”

Did they ever.

The Stars outshot USA 16-4 in the second period, totally dominating the ice territorially and turning the 17s’ end of the ice into a shooting gallery — although this time the duck was a red, white and blue-clad Maxwell.

“It was like a tale of two periods,” Hynes said. “Traverse City came out and really responded well. They came out determined and we didn’t match that intensity.”

After shore put USA up 2-0 just 20 seconds into the period, Traverse City scored three unanswered goals the rest of the period to take a 3-2 lead into the third.

“We came out sluggish and they were really fast out of the gates,” Palumbo said. “Then we made some adjustments and went back to the things that worked for us the last few weeks.”

Palumbo said the Stars improved their positioning, among other things.

“As we got better position, the game turned around,” he said.

Chris Salomone jammed the puck in on a wrap-around — with assists going to Tim Opie and Marc Thompson — just after a power play expired, and just over a minute later Jean tied up the game with a stellar goal.

Jean skated in, deked to the left and then reached back with his 6-foot-3 frame and one-handed the puck into the twine past Maxwell’s outstretched pad. Chris Heineman and Eric McLintock drew assists.

From behind the net, Kyle Bonis found Garrett Thompson for a one-timer out front to give the Stars their first lead with 8:31 left in the second. Travis White also notched a helper on the go-ahead goal.

Jean put the Stars up 4-2, fighting through two defensemen to one-hand the puck in, 5:27 into the third. Team USA forced overtime with goals by Kevin Clare and Bryan Rust midway through the stanza.

C.J. Motte made 22 saves for the Stars and Maxwell had 26 as the Stars held a 30-26 advantage in shots on goal.

The two teams face off again tonight at Centre ICE.

“It’s going to be a tougher game,” Johnstone said. “They’ll come out with more jump.”

The Team USA U-18s also play Alpena again tonight.

ICE CHIPS: The game was delayed by referee’s timeouts twice. The first came when a fiberglass stick shattered, sending debris all over the ice. The referees scraped up the shards with a shovel to clear the playing surface. The second came at the start of the third period, when it was discovered that the crossbar on one of the goals was broken. ... McLintock won a third-period fight with USA’s Richie Crowley. Both were ejected, with Crowley leaving the game slightly bloodied. ... Jean was selected the game’s No. 1 star, with Shore second and White third.

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