Houghton comes back to beat Utica Eisenhower, 6-5
HOUGHTON — Twice down by two goals, the Houghton Gremlins hockey team could have quit playing and allowed the visiting Utica Eisenhower Eagles to skate away with a relatively easy victory Friday night at Dee Stadium.
Instead, the Gremlins turned to assistant captain Dawson McKay and senior Austin Goudge, and the pair struck five times combined as the Gremlins battled back and won in overtime, 6-5.
McKay’s third tally of the night came just 2 minutes, 24 seconds into the extra session as he picked up a rebound off a shot from captain Jacob Kruse, who had four assists in the game, patiently waited for an opening and beat Eagles goaltender Blake Kuczaj, setting off pandemonium on the Gremlins’ bench.
“It was big, especially being down going into the third and coming back and winning in overtime,” said McKay. “We’re not a team that is going to give up. We are not the most skilled team, but we definitely are going to work hard for all three periods and not give up, no matter what the score is.”
All three of McKay’s goals were the result of crashing the net and burying a rebound, a part of the Gremlins had been missing through their early games this season without him in the lineup.
“He’s a strong player,” said Gremlins coach Corey Markham. “He’s got great size and good hands, especially on that last goal. He had nice patience and a good move.”
The contest, which started with strong skating and timely shots from the Gremlins, broke down into a game of bounces and turnovers. While the Eagles made use of two bounces off of Gremlins’ players for goals, coach Bob Hall was extremely disappointed with that his team gave the puck away far too often, allowing the Gremlins to attack from 60-100 feet in front of Kuczaj instead of the normal 200 feet had Houghton been forced to start from beyond their own goal line.
“We did a lot of things not as well as we have done in the past,” said Hall. “We struggled getting the puck deep [Friday] for whatever reason. We gave the puck up within five feet on both sides of the blue line way too often.”
Neither coach was particularly pleased with the 51-minute effort of their own team. For Hall, the turnovers were an epidemic they could not get away from. For Markham, it was defensive lapses from the net out.
“We had a couple of bad coverage plays were we didn’t pick up guys,” said Markham. “We had a real flat [second] period. We didn’t play like we are capable of.”
While the Eagles appeared to struggle with “bus legs” as Hall put it through the opening 16 minutes of play, the Gremlins took advantage. Just over 14 minutes in, Kruse had the puck knocked off his stick in the slot. McKay flew in and grabbed it, drove around an Eagles defender and fired a quick shot on goal that bounced off of Kuczaj and back to him. McKay knocked the puck out of the air and in at 14:08.
Less than a minute later, senior Ronald Olson pounced on a rebound off a shot from senior Casey Lentowich, and he beat Kuczaj at 15:02.
Rather than skate into the intermission leading by two, however, the Gremlins took two penalties in a span of 33 seconds, allowing the Eagles to play 5-on-3 for the final 1:17 of the period. With just eight seconds left, Josh Zarra cut the Gremlins’ lead to one.
“A couple of penalties late [in a period] will kill you,” said Markham. “Going down 5-on-3 was really tough. That was a little bit disappointing that they got the one.”
Utica came out much stronger in the middle frame and nearly scored seven minutes in when Matthew Haist got behind the Gremlins’ defense. He made a quick move to his forehand, but junior Will Stier tracked him and made the stop.
Haist would find the back of the net 2:16 later when his attempted pass out front from the right corner hit Stier and bounced into the net.
That set off a stretch of 1:27 where the Eagles found the net twice more. The first off the stick of Drayton Collis, who was able to find the net after Chad Ritchie’s shot bounced off of Kruse and to him. The second was scored by Keegan Nolan.
“Just getting pucks to the net,” said Hall when asked what changed for his team. “Play on their end, not on your end, that wins you hockey games.”
McKay stopped the bleeding with a rebound goal at 12:15 off an initial shot from Kruse.
Needing a better third period, the Gremlins started well, but could not solve Kuczaj. Instead, the Eagles added to their one-goal lead when Collis found the net for the second time at 8:32.
Kruse got the Gremlins’ comeback going by driving around an Eagles defender and taking a shot that rebounded out into the high slot where Goudge batted it home at 10:47.
Goudge tied the game at 15:18 when he took a pass at the right point from Kruse, cut to the middle of the blue line and fired a wrist shot through traffic that found the back of the net.
The Gremlins return to action this afternoon when they host Rochester United at 1 p.m.
Scoring
Utica 1 3 1 0 – 5
Houghton 2 1 2 1 – 6
First period
1, HHS, Dawson McKay, 14:03
2, HHS, Ronald Olson (Casey Lentowich, P.J. Donnelly), 15:02
3, UTE, Josh Zarra (Nicholas Cvetanovski, Reyse Valicevic), PP, 16:52
Second period
4, UTE, Matthew Haist, 9:16
5, UTE, Drayton Collis (Chad Ritchie, Kyle Kraski), 9:53
6, UTE, Keegan Nolan (Adrian DiBrango), 10:43
7, HHS, McKay (Jacob Kruse, Taavi Rajala), 12:15
Third period
8, UTE, Collis (DiBrango), PP, 8:32
9, HHS, Austin Goudge (Kruse), 10:43
10, HHS, Goudge (Kruse), 15:18
Overtime
11, HHS, McKay (Kruse), 2:24
Saves
UTE, Kuczaj 14 4 20 1 – 39
HHS, Stier 10 12 5 2 – 29
Penalties
UTE: 4/8; HHS: 6/12
Power plays
UTE: 2/5; HHS: 0/4