Rangers off to Traverse City for three

With two weekends remaining in the North American Hockey League regular season, the North Division crown is still completely up for grabs.

The Marquette Rangers are tied atop the division with Traverse City and are four points ahead of third place Janesville. Marquette travels to Traverse City for three games this Friday-Sunday, and then hosts the North Stars a week from Thursday before Janesville comes calling to Lakeview Arena for the final two games of the regular season next Friday and Saturday.

Needless to say, this is going to be interesting.

The only certainty in the race is that Alpena will not make the playoffs for the first time in their history, while the Rangers will be in the post season for the first time since their inaugural year of 2006-07.

Everything else is anybody’s guess.

Marquette is looking to get some much-needed momentum as they head down the stretch. The team is coming off a two-game sweep last weekend at the hands of the Jets. Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City will be a difficult place for Marquette to get that much-needed head of steam, having lost all their road games against the North Stars this season.

But not all the news is bad.

Marquette swept the North Stars two weeks ago at Lakeview Arena, part of a three-game winning weekend where the team also secured a playoff bid with a win against Alpena.

Marquette native Tanner Kero continues to the lead the team and the entire NAHL in goals with 30 on the season. Garrett Ladd is the team’s point leader on the season with 57 from 19 goals the 38 assists, while teammate Andrew Kolb has 56 points on 21 goals to compliment 35 assists.