Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette Houghton forward Jace DeForge controls the puck in the offensive zone during the first period of a game against Hancock Thursday at the Houghton County Arena in Hancock.

By DAVER KARNOSKY

dkarnosky@mininggazette.com

HANCOCK — With five goals in the second period, the Houghton Gremlins hockey team opened their season with a 7-2 win over the Hancock Bulldogs Thursday night at the Houghton County Arena. Houghton got goals from six different scorers to earn the victory.

“It feels really good,” said Gremlins coach Micah Stipech. “We really wanted to be excellent at the things that don’t take any talent tonight, hard work, good forecheck, backcheck, and good changes, the simple things. I thought we were. Of course, there’s going to be some mistakes and it was a little messy for both teams, but I felt like we did those things that don’t take any talent.”

The Bulldogs had held Houghton in check for much of the game, staying within a goal, 3-2, thanks, in part to four power plays, until Gremlins freshman forward Braden Kari popped in a power play goal from the slot at 12:40 of the middle frame. After that goal, Houghton added two more in less than a minute from senior winger Jace DeForge, and senior defenseman Hudson Markham at 15:18 and 16:14, respectively, to turn the lead into a four-goal advantage.

“We had that window where we were on them,” said Stipech. “It’s a long change in the second period. They had momentum off those power plays that they had, and they had a goal. So that pushback that we had, at least momentarily, broke them that period. We got a bunch in a row and that was the difference in the game.

“I was really proud of how we stayed on the gas that we didn’t let up after, after we got one.”

Hancock had made it 3-2 on a power play goal by senior winger Jackson Sinkowski and an even-strength goal from junior forward Drew Sturos less than two minutes later.

Despite seeing his group struggle in the late stages of the middle frame, Bulldogs coach Pete Rouleau felt that his team can learn a lot from their experience.

“Yeah, the second was tough,” he said. “A couple mistakes that we can clean up. We have a lot of young guys in the lineup, a lot of guys playing ‘D’ (defense) that were forwards. So, we expect mistakes early. We’ll work on it, and hopefully clean them up and be better from here on out.”

Rouleau was also pleased with the way his starting goaltender, junior Isaac Johnson, fared, despite giving up seven goals on 42 shots.

“I thought he was fine tonight,” Rouleau said. “A lot of times, he made the first save. We gave up a lot of second chances, especially in the second.”

Rouleau liked that Johnson made the initial save, and felt like his team should have done a better job of clearing out rebounds, which the Gremlins scored multiple times on in the contest.

“I thought they scored on a few rebounds,” he said. “I think there was one rebound he’d like back. I think it was the last goal in the second, but other than that, I thought he made saves that we asked him to make, and he made a couple that we didn’t think he could make.”

The Gremlins were playing without senior defenseman Oscar Petersen, who is still injured from football season, and Stipech felt that his team struggled at times, without his experience. Stipech also felt that sophomore goaltender Brycyn Nettell, who made his varsity debut, was strong in net, stopping 22 of 24 Bulldogs’ shots.

“We’ve got some young ‘D’ (defensemen) who haven’t killed…our penalty kill takes a little while to learn, and we’ve got some forwards that are used to it, but our ‘D,’ they were thrown into the deep end tonight,” Stipech said. “They all had to battle through it, and Bryson was really strong behind it.”

Houghton also got goals from junior winger Connor Arko, junior forward Jack Sayen, and second goal from Markham, in the win. The Gremlins’ veterans were key to the team coming out on top.

“The big thing I liked was just our team energy,” Stipech said. “The chemistry, the bench, the fire that they played with, those are really good signs. I think that there’s a bunch of things we need to get better at, but those intangibles, the energy that we had, I was pumped to see this is a good group.”

The other Gremlins goal came off the stick of freshman defenseman Wesley Mattila 8:15 into the contest. He, along with Kari, both scored their first career goals.

“Those guys got a puck to the net,” said Stipech. “There were a few moments where we’re trying to stickhandle the puck to the net. It didn’t work out. Wesley put it on the ice, on net, and what do you know? Then Braden Kari went to a hard area and got rewarded.”

UP NEXT

The Gremlins are back in action next Friday, Nov. 22, when they host Traverse City Central at 7 p.m. at Dee Stadium. The Bulldogs will host Traverse City Central on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 1 p.m. at the Houghton County Arena.