Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos taken by Lizzie Taylor. Also click the AUDIO buttons to hear post-game comments from Nick Martinson, Coach Andy Johnson, and Alpena Coach Ben Henry.
ALPENA---It was a heavyweight battle on the ice Saturday night as the Escanaba Eskymos and Alpena Wildcats met at the Northern Lights Arena in Alpena.
Both teams are ranked in the top ten in the state in their respective divisions, and for good reason, as they battled all night long. Escanaba took a 2-0 lead in the third period, gave up two quick goals, fell behind in the shootout, but emerged with a 3-2 victory that included goals by Ben Sands and Nick Martinson in the shootout.
“Midway through the third period, I was thinking to myself, I'm going to be proud of my team and how they played,” Eskymo Coach Andy Johnson said. “We were able to pretty much roll three lines, and our third line today came out big. They were getting pucks in deep, and they were getting pucks out of our zone.”
“We kind of mixed our lines up a bit for this game,” Johnson continued. “We had to roll three lines to keep our first two lines fresh, and our third line played an amazing game and helped us get this win."
“I thought it was a great game,” Alpena head coach and athletic director Ben Henry said. “Back and forth. Not many high school hockey games are 0-0 after two periods of play. It was evenly-matched. We played hard, we played pretty well. It could have gone either way. Escanaba's got a great team, obviously.”
The game was a scoreless tie after two periods before the Eskymos broke through with a goals from Hank Sholten and Owen LaBonte, but the Wildcats came back with two quick goals from Clark Weir and Gavin Winterstein just 51 seconds apart to tie it.
“They've got some high-end talent up front, and their goalie was good today,” Henry said. “It sucks to lose, obviously, but it was a playoff game in my mind. Heavy-hitting. Not a lot of power plays. Fast-paced. It's the kind of game you like to coach. It was fun to coach.”
In the best-of-five shootout, Alpena took the lead on a goal by freshman Beckham Winterstein, and the game was on the stick of Sands. The senior forward deeked Alpena goaltender Parker Schuldt and tucked it by him for the tying goal.
Eskymo goaltender Cully Hayes stopped the next two shots he faced, and Nick Martinson gave the Eskymos the lead with a clutch goal.
“I've been doing this one thing since like Squirts, where you fake one way and you go the other, and it's seemed to work since then,” Martinson said. “So, I just said, let's do it! After Ben (Sands) just shot that one and he just came out of the net and it was just a good save, we came back to the bench and said let's start changing it up.”
Hayes then stopped Brody Misiak with the final Alpena scoring chance, sealing a huge Eskymo victory, their fourth against a state-ranked team this season.
“I was put out needing to score to keep us alive,” Sands said. “Their goalie came out far, so I faked forehand and went backhand into an open net. Nick came with a great move to put us ahead and Cully made an unbelievable save to seal it. All three lines worked their tails off and it feels great seeing the boys work hard for a win like that.”
Hayes stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced in regulation, plus five of the six shots in the shootout. Hayes was clearly the first star of the game, beating back a talented Alpena offensive attack.
“Cully played amazing,” Johnson said. “He was just so comfortable back there. In the shootout, he did well. Our first shootout win in five years, so, yeah, we're super happy.”
Alpena's coach agreed.
“Their goaltending is phenomenal, I think,” Henry said. “He (Hayes) wasn't giving us much to look at in the first two periods. We hit a couple of posts, I know that. But he made that back-door save on Clark (Weir) in the first period, but we didn't have a lot of Grade-A scoring chances. And when we did, he made it look a lot easier than it really was. So, for us to bare down and get those two goals late, it says a lot about our team.”
Shuldt made 18 saves, plus four more in the shootout.
With the win, the Eskymos improved to 10-4-0 on the season. Alpena fell to 11-4-0.
“This win showed our whole team that we need to fore-check hard and back-check hard,” Johnson said. “It's gonna be this style of hockey going forward.”
It could've been a crushing loss after blowing a 2-0 lead in less than one minute during the third period, but Martinson says the guys stayed calm.
“We didn't get too down,” Martinson said. “It's a game of inches, and so anything can happen with any amount of time left in the game. So, we just kept our heads up high. And look what happened? We got the win!”
“It was a complete grind from start to finish,” Sands added. “The game was scoreless through two but we stuck to our plan and worked hard to wear them down. Both goalies made some big saves.”
ESKYNOS THREE STAR SELECTION
1. Cully Hayes
2. Nick Martinson
3. Griffin Johnson
SATURDAY'S OTHER UPPER PENINSULA GAMES
Houghton 5, Capital City 0
Hancock 9, Okemos 1
Painesdale-Jeffers 7, DePere 3
Calumet 3, Livonia Stevenson 1
