A pair of 4-1 victories on the road over Port Huron, Feb. 11-12, kept the Motor City Metal Jackets in the playoff hunt in the North American Hockey League’s North Division standings.
At 26-16-1 overall (53 points) the Jackets currently reside in a tie for fourth place with Traverse City, just one point behind the Michigan Warriors and six points behind the Janesville Jets.
The team’s victories were spurred by solid goaltending from Jimmy Hamby, who stopped 29-of-30 Falcons’ shots on Friday night, only to repeat the same effort of Saturday.
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Metal Jackets standouts Andrew Graves, Petrus Sipila and Cody Wydo set the pace for the squad in the opening game.
Sipila scored the first of his two goals on the night at the 7:32 mark of the opening period, then netted his second at the :40 mark of the third period.
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Graves got the Jackets on the board, however, at the 6:42 mark of the first. His timely goal knotted the game at 1-1.
Meanwhile, points leader, Wydo, added a score later in the final period to close the door on the Falcons.
Saturday night’s contest was more of the same for the dominant Metal Jackets.
Wydo added another goal to his stat line, pushing his points total to 79 on the season, while Will Badner, who had a pair of goals in the game, and Mike Monfredo also scored for Motor City.
It should be noted that the Metal Jackets penalty kill was particularly sharp against Port Huron, holding the Falcons to 1-12 on the powerplay.
Next up for the Metal Jackets is a trip to Chicago and a showdown with the struggling Chicago Hitmen.
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