Freshmen Lead Way As Eskymos Beat Miners, 8-5

NEGAUNEE---The Escanaba Eskymos had plenty of "firsts" Tuesday night as the Eskymos faced the Negaunee Miners at the Negaunee Ice Arena.

Freshman Ethan Silverstone scored his first varsity goal and fellow ninth grader Trevor Denome got his first varsity win in net as the Eskymos beat the Miners, 8-5.

The Eskymos raced to a 4-0 lead but got sloppy at times, allowing the Miners to close to within a goal on two different occassions at 4-3 and 6-5. To their credit, the Eskymos rebounded both times, putting the puck in the net to regain control of the contest.

"We looked great, very good, at times," Eskymo Coach Matt Hughes said. "Then thee were times where it looked like it was our second day on the ice. We have a few things to clean up for Kingsford in two days. We owe them one because they beat us in the third game of the season in our rink."

Freshman Grant Wickham scored at the 1:48 mark of the first period, but much of the period was played in the Eskymo zone.

Denome, a JV call-up making his varsity debut, was strong. He stopped two breakaways, and fought off several odd-man rushes.

Senior Garth Wickham scored late in the first period, making it a 2-0 game entering trhe dressing room. Denome stopped all 12 shots he faced in that period.

"That was the discussion in the dressing room," Hughes said. "Here we called him (Denome) up from the JV team and he was holding us in the game. We had to pick it up."

The Eskymos took a 3-0 lead as Colton Hayes went in on a two-on-one rush and scored at the 4:27 mark. Then Silverstone tallied at the 8:35 mark to make it 4-0.

"That was a nice goal," Hughes said. "And a real nice pass from Joey Jacobson."

But then the Eskymos got sloppy, allowing three Negaunee goals in a span of 2:20.

The first one was on a breakaway by Eric Hurst, who spent long stretches of the game "cherry picking" in the neutral zone. That goal came on Negaunee's 22nd shot on goal.

Hurst scored again moments later, and then Shane Ring went top-shelf to make it 4-3.

"That was their game plan, having #12 stay way up high," Hughes said. "It took us a while to catch on to that, and to counter that."

But the Eskymos rebounded with a Reace Hubert goal on the power play in the final minute of the second period to lead, 5-3. The third period started poorly for the Eskymos as captain Chris LeMire drew a five-minute major penalty for head contact.

The Eskymos did a nice job of killing it off, and Garth Wickham scored his second goal of the game...a pretty shorthanded marquer that went backhand, top-shelf.

Negaunee rallied again, however, as Ring came in close and followed up his own shot by scoring a power play goal with one second left on LeMire's penalty.

And when Hurst stuffed one past Denome to complete his hat trick with 4:31 to play, it was 6-5. Negaunee freshman goaltender Preston Maki made several nice saves, including two on Wickham (who was looking for his hat trick goal) to keep it 6-5. But LeMire fired one past Maki from long range with 2:43 left to essentially put the game away. Christer Carne's backhand goal with 1:31 left closed the scoring for Escanaba.

Escanaba had 47 shots on goal while Negaunee had 43. Maki stopped 39 shots for the Moners while Denome had 38 saves for Escanaba.

Escanaba (10-11-0) travels to Kingsford Thursday night. Game time is 7:00 ET. The game will be broadcast on WCHT-AM (600) and at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Sandi Young, and listen to Joe Jacobson's player spotlight interview, and Grant Wickham's post-game interview.