Published: March 24, 2008 09:51 am         

Stars out of playoff contention

Victories by Bandits, USA knock TC out

TRAVERSE CITY -- The bleak became the non-existent on Saturday night.

A 5-3 loss to league-leading St. Louis -- coupled with a 4-1 victory by the Team USA U-18s -- officially eliminated the Traverse City North Stars from the North American Hockey League playoff race.

Traverse City surrendered two goals in each of the first two periods against the Bandits (46-9-2).

The Stars (21-23-12) were able to close their season at Centre ICE in style, getting a goal from Traverse City native Eric O'Hearn with one second remaining. Alex Breeden and Jarrod LaBelle assisted on the goal.

O'Hearn also scored in the first period for the Stars from Sean Burke and Tyler Stephens. Traverse City's second-period goal by Kyle Bonis came on the power play, assisted by Nathan Urbaniak and Jameson Raymond.

Andrew Hamburg and Kyle O'Kane scored first-period goals for St. Louis. Josh Rabbani and O'Kane found the back of the net in the second period for the Bandits while Mike Murray added an empty-netter with 1:36 remaining in the contest.