Click the thumbnails to see photos taken by Lizzie LaMarch, as well as videos of goals by Martinson and Sandstrom
ESCANABA---The Escanaba Eskymos and Marquette Sentinels opened the high school hockey season with a tight game Friday night at the Wells Sports Complex.
In the first game played by anybody in the Upper Peninsula this season, the Sentinels left Escanaba with a 4-1 win, with two of those goals coming on empty-net goals at the end.
It was a tense 0-0 tie for more than half of the game before Marquette's Seth Sandstrom skated in on a 2-on-1 and roofed a shot past Eskymo goaltender Mason Crouch to give Marquette a 1-0 lead at the 11:37 mark of the second period.
But Escanaba's Nick Martinson replied just 34 seconds into the third period, with Chase Korpi assisting, and the game was tied at 1-1. But midway through the third period, Carson Pond broke the tie for Marquette at the 7:47 mark. Colton Hartz had the assist on both of Marquette's goals.
Escanaba pulled Couch for an extra attacker, but could not get the tying goal to force overtime, Instead, the Sentinels got open-net goals from Sandstrom with 1:25 left, and from Ty Martin with 14 seconds left. It was a clean game, with just three penalties called.
Marquette goaltender Finn Scott stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced to get the win. Couch, who played just one game last season as Cully Hayes finished a four-year run in the Eskymo net, played well. Couch stopped 19 of the 21 shots he faced.
