Wickham Scores Two; Eskymos Fall To Wolves, 3-2
TRAVERSE CITY---There was a case of good news, bad news on Saturday as the Escanaba Eskymos battled Bay City Central at Traverse City's Centre Ice Arena. The good news: Garth Wickham scored two more goals, giving him four tallies in two games at the North/South Hockey Showcase. The bad news: the Eskymos lost the game. Escanaba missed out on several breakaway scoring opportunities, then got into penalty trouble, and fell to the Wolves, 3-2. It snapped Escanaba's five-game winning streak. The Wolves got a lucky goal in the first period as a puck deflected off of a skate and past goaltender Brodie Goddard. It was Kyle Vanochten's goal. It stayed that way the rest of the period, even though the Eskymos went down by two men for nearly 90 seconds thanks to two straight penalties. In the early part of the third period, the Wolves caught anotrher break when Goddard sent the puck to the nearside boards. Austin Lawless picked up the puck and slapped a long shot past Goddard, shortside, putting Bay City in front. Less than two minutes later, Wickham took a pass from Colton Hayes and ripped one off the left goal post and into the net, retying the game at 2-2. But Escanaba got into penalty trouble again, and this time, the Wolves capitalized as Vanochten scored the top-shelf, five-on-three goal, off of a pretty set-up. The Eskymos still had more than ten minutes left on the clock, but couldn't get the equalizer. Pulling the goaltender for an extra attacker also didn't help. Escanaba fell to 7-7-0 on the season. The Eskymos will host University of Detroit Jesuit in a rare Sunday afternoon game. The junior varsity game is set for 1:00, with the varsity game to follow at about 3:00. The varsity gamewill be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHGLIGHTS box above to see videos of Wickham's goals, taken by Micky LaMarch. Also, click to listen to Blaine Reinhart's player spotlight interview. |