09/14/2006

TC takes season opener

New North Stars contribute to win

BLAINE, Min. — Matt Hughes and Jameson Raymond were frozen out of Bozeman after last season — literally.

The Valley Ice Garden in the central Montana town was turned into a cold storage facility, leaving the IceDogs franchise without a place to play. The tandem — along with fellow imports from discontinued clubs in Cleveland and Billings — had their respective fingerprints all over the Traverse City North Stars' season-opening 5-3 win over Fargo-Moorhead at the North American Hockey League Showcase on Wednesday.

Hughes registered a pair of goals — with a Raymond assist on Hughes' first period opening salvo — while Aaron Pietila, Joe Greener and Travis Hamway also scored key goals in their first games in a Traverse City sweater. Pietila and Greener played with the now-inactive Cleveland Barons franchise in 2005-06, while Hamway was the top scorer in Billings last season before the club disbanded this summer.

"These are new guys to our team, but they are veterans," North Stars head coach Scott Gardiner said. "And we knew that if we added these guys to what we had coming back, we'd have a solid, solid core group of guys on the ice. They showed they know how to put the puck into the net today."

The NAHL, like the National Hockey League a year ago, has started to more stringently enforce the on-ice rules: cracking down on stickwork, illegally impeding a skater's progress and essentially opening the game up again to the more skilled players.

That initiative was reflected in the North Stars-Jets box score, where the teams combined for 27 minor penalties. Four of the game's eight tallies came from special teams.

"There was absolutely no flow whatsoever in this game," said Hughes, who also assisted on Hamway's game-sealing lamplighter. "But that's the way they're going to call it all year long and everyone just has to get used to it."

Hughes opened the scoring with a power play effort just 6:38 into the affair on assists from Hamway and Raymond. Greener (Brett Englebright) made it 2-0 in favor of the North Stars just past the midway point of the second stanza and Hughes' short-handed marker (Jonathan Juliano) a little less than six minutes later gave TC a 3-0 edge before Jesse Echternach got Fargo-Moorhead on the scoreboard in the waning moments before the second intermission.

The Jets logged a pair of quick tallies to open play in the third, knotting the contest at 3-3, but Traverse City responded with a pair of rejoinders less than three minutes later off the sticks of Pietila and Hamway. Pietila's goal was unassisted, while Kory Kaunisto and Hughes drew assists on Hamway's rebound goal.

"I like it," Hughes said of his new home. "We're playing well together so far. The chemistry will develop long-term, but we have a great head start on it. I know this team is going to be better, record-wise, than last year."

Returning netminder Ryan Donovan saw plenty of action for Traverse City, fending off 34 Fargo-Moorhead shots and earning praise from Gardiner.

"Ryan was huge for us today," Gardiner said. "He made key saves in key spots and gave us a chance to try to get things rolling. And with all the penalties they called, there were a lot of scoring chances out there."

The North Stars gear up for today's second game of the four-day NAHL Showcase, taking on the Bismarck (N.D.) Bobcats at 2:30 p.m. contest. Traverse City will face Santa Fe on Friday before wrapping up the event on Saturday against the Wichita Falls (Tx.) Wildcats.