ALPENA, MI - The Wildcats won their sixth straight Big North Conference game with a 7-4 victory over Petoskey on Saturday afternoon at Northern Lights Arena.  The Wildcats wasted no time getting on the board when Tanner Orban scored 21 seconds into the game to give Alpena the early lead.  The lead was extended to 2-0 when Anden Marceau scored his 15th of the season after Brody Thomson kept the puck in the Northmen zone and Marceau fired a quick turn around shot that beat Will Parker.  Petoskey's Dylan Robinson cut into the Wildcat lead with 5:09 left in the period.  Petoskey kept the pressure on the Wildcats and with 33-seconds to play in the period Derek Hebner's shot through traffic found its way into the back of the net to tie the game at two.

Tanner Orban would again go to work quickly when he fired a puck at Parker that hit a Petoskey stick and went high into the net just 36 seconds into the period to give Alpena the 3-2 lead.  Hunter Canute, who entered the weekend with no goals on the season, found himself all alone on the right-wing side and fired a beautiful shot into the top corner of the net for his second goal in the last two games.  Ethan Decker got the Northmen back in the game with a little over five minutes left in the period after multiple shots were fired at Collin Lightfoot who could not make the final save as the lead was cut to 4-3.  Orban completed the hat trick a few minutes later to extend the Wildcat lead to 5-3 after two periods.

Ben Nowak would give Alpena a three-goal lead a little over four minutes into the third period when his rebound shot went through the five-hole of Parker.  Jordan Troxel again cut the lead to two goals for Petoskey about a minute after Nowak's goal, but that is as close as the Northmen could get.  Marceau put the game away with five and a half minutes to play when he tipped home a shot from Orban to give Alpena the 7-4 lead.  Lightfoot stopped 47 of the 51 shots fired at him by Petoskey.

Alpena (9-11-2, 6-2-0 BNC) host TC West on Friday night at 6pm in a battle for 2nd place in the conference.  Alpena sits at 12 points in the BNC, just two points ahead of the Titans (5-3-0) and four points behind 1st place TC Central (8-0-0).