FLATTENED: Marquette Dominates Escanaba, 6-0

MARQUETTE---The Marquette Redmen hockey team scored goals on the first two shots in the first two minutes of the game Thursday and rolled to a 6-0 win over the Escanaba Eskymos at Lakeview Arena.

The Redmen swept the season series from the Eskymos, and improved to 12-3-1 on the season. Escanaba’s record fell to 7-8-0.

“Any time you can get off to a start like that, obviously, it’s fun playing from ahead,” Marquette Coach Doug Garrow said. “It’s hard for teams to come from behind all the time. It’s important to start every period, and also the way you end periods, I think we try to harp on them about that. I liked the way bwe jumped out at them tonight.”

Tanner Phillips had two goals and two assists in the Redmen victory, and he is theone who opened the scoring just 80 seconds into the game. Tyler Guerrin scored 31 seconds later, putting the Eskymos in a two-goal hole.

“That’s what happens when you don’t start on time and your focus isn’t where it’s supposed to be,” Escanaba Coach Matt Hughes said. “I was very surprised. Just with the history behind both of the programs and the rivalry and the way we’ve been able to battle some pretty close games, to come out the way we did, flatk, and kind of effortless at times, was very disappointing from a coaching standpoint.”

Escanaba had big problems generating offense on the power play, and for the second time this season, the Eskymos gave up two shorthanded goals. The first was a bad luck goal as the Eskymos were trying to break out of their zon and the puck hit a skate and bounced past goaltender Trevor Denome.

That happened just 46 seconds into the second period, and it was 3-0.

Marquette took a 4-0 lead on a Ryan Baldwin goal, and then less than two minutes later, the Eskymos had another power play chance. But Gaetanno Cammarata dug the puck out from behind the net, passed it in front, and Phillips slam-dunked it home to make it 5-0. Thomas Dunleavy scored with 48 seconds left in the second period to make it 6-0, and there was no scoring in the third period.

Marquette goaltender Tyler Bergwall stopped all 20 shots he faced as he got his second straight shutout, after he also beat Alpena, 1-0, on Saturday in Traverse City.

“That’s a good team over there,” Garrow said of the Eskymos. “They work hard. I think once we got a lead, it was hard for them to come back.”

“The hole was too deep at that point, down 6-0, and basically, we (coaches) were out of words,” Hughes said. “We just told them to win the period. Now, it’s gut-check time. We have ten games left, and we can’t afford to be going backward.”

Escanaba returns to action next Friday, Jan. 25, in Calumet.

The Eskymos are in the midst of playing eleven straight games on the road, with games at Negaunee and Kingsford still to come, along with three games at the Public High School Hockey Showcase in Chelsea.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos clips taken by Mickey LaMarch. Also, click the AUDIO buttons for radio replays, and to hear interviews with Grant LaMarche and Trevor Denome, and post-game comments from Hughes and Garrow.