With just two matches left before the last week of the regular season, the FHC hockey team had a chance to rise above .500 on Friday. FHC would get a chance to play against the 19-4 Petoskey Northmen and get a rematch versus Forest Hills Northern/Eastern on Saturday—a team the Rangers defeated earlier in the season.

In the game against Petoskey, the Rangers took an imposing 3-1 lead at the end of the second period thanks to goals from senior Noah Smith and juniors Sammy Mielock and Nate Almassian. Unfortunately for FHC, though, with two minutes left in the game, Petoskey mounted a three-goal comeback to steal the game by a score of 4-3.

The Rangers got their rematch against Forest Hills Northern/Eastern the following day. Junior Justin Baehr got the nod to start and fought hard throughout all three periods. FHC wasn’t able to find a way to get on the board, leaving the door open for FHN/FHE. After getting a goal in the first period, FHN/FHE took advantage of an empty net opportunity to help get the final goal of the night and end the game with a 2-0 advantage over FHC.

The Rangers now fall to 10-12 on the season but will get a chance to even out their record with several games ahead, including two against Grand Rapids Christian this week and a very exciting senior night match on Friday against Lowell/Caledonia. Head coach Bill McSween is very optimistic about these upcoming games and is looking to help the Rangers move forward positively before the playoffs.

“We have two games against Christian, which we need to focus on today and Wednesday,” coach McSween said. “Then we can get to focus on a senior night on Friday. We have played well this week for large stretches of the games, but we need to learn how to finish games.”