With just one week left before February, we draw closer and closer to the end of the regular season. The Rangers moved into Friday with a 7-6 record. They would face-off with Mona Shores to conclude the season series to start the weekend. However, the Sailors came up with the victory in the game prior, taking a narrow 3-0 victory home.

Junior goalie guy Justin Baehr got the nod to start once again and mastered his time in the net after taking a whopping 38 shots. Baehr made 31 saves on the night and made many big stops one on one and in close. After a nice pass from senior Josh Smith in the second, the offense fired up with an excellent goal from junior Sammy Mielock. Then in the third, the Rangers were able to put up two more with goals from junior Anthony Ott and senior Lucas Jeffreys. Unfortunately for the Rangers, they could never catch Mona’s 7-3 lead that carried on into victory.

The Rangers continued to learn from mistakes made throughout the Mona game, and Smith is not concerned for FHC at all, as he realizes what the plan of attack should be going forward.

“Looking to build on our offense it’s been better in the past few games, so we can build off that,” Josh said. “The young guys have been stepping up a lot and improving so, just keep those things rolling going into playoffs.”

The Rangers moved onto a road match-up with division one power Byron Center the next night. This would be the first time both teams squared off all season, as Byron Center won both meetings the year prior. However, in this one sophomore, Peter Nemmers would make the start and stay solid all night in the net. Nemmers was able to make 39 saves on 44 shots on goal for the night. The offense remained quiet for FHC, but J.Smitty was able to notch off a goal in the 3rd period. The final score of the contest was 5-1 in favor of the Bulldogs.

The Rangers now fall to 7-8 on the season, with a conference record of 3-3. This upcoming week the Rangers will travel out to the East side of the Mitten to square off with Walled Lake Western, Fenton/Linden, and Bay City. This is an exciting time for the boys as they get one last big road trip before the next month.

“We are looking to make a strong comeback from this weekend’s games,” senior Sheldon Ramsey said. “This weekend, we are heading to Detroit for a showcase and looking to show people what kind of team we are and how tough we can be.”

Once the boys come back, there will be only four games left on the schedule for FHC. In February, they will open up with a game against Novi, then come back to Grand Rapids to play West Ottawa, Forest Hills Northern/Eastern, and Grand Rapids Christian. After the four games are up, the boys will move on to the playoffs.