ALPENA, MI - The Alpena Hockey team took a big step towards their first conference championship in school history with a 5-2 victory over Traverse City West on Saturday night.  The Wildcats got a huge night from Senior Colby Plowman as he scored four goals and had an assist in the key Big North Victory.  The game was also the annual Purple Game for Alpena as Deana Stevens, mother of assistant coach Ian and Wildcat Sean, dropped the ceremonial puck in honor of her heroic battle with cancer.  The Wildcats took advantage of an early Power Play opportunity when just ten seconds into the man advantage Plowman skated the puck out of the corner uncontested to the net and beat Max Grisby five-hole to give Alpena the 1-0 lead.  The Wildcats would make it 2-0 when Plowman poked a loose puck through a goalmouth scrum for his second goal of the game.  The majority of the 2nd Period belonged to the Titans as Andrew Rickenberg would get West on the board with about 2-minutes left in the period.  With 28 seconds left in the period, Caleb Barsheff tipped a point shot past Cooper Black to tie the game at two.  Plowman made sure that the tie didn't last long as he took the face-off into the Titans zone and beat Grisby glove side just seven seconds after the tying goal to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead after two.  Alpena would reclaim a two-goal lead when Plowman poked a loose puck past a Titan defender to a wide-open Brett Ciupka who cut across the crease and put the puck home on the backhand.  Plowman scored his fourth of the night as he outraced the Titans to slide the puck into the empty net to finish the game off.  Alpena (16-4-1, 5-1-0 BNC) sit alone in 1st place in the Big North Conference by one point over Petoskey and will finish their January 18 game with Gaylord on Monday night.