Gremlins power past Pirates in overtime as Kruse nets two
HOUGHTON — It is no easy thing for any high school hockey team to come to the local area and beat both the Hancock Bulldogs and the Houghton Gremlins in the same weekend. The Bay Port Pirates found out just how hard that task is on Saturday.
The Pirates took four first-period penalties on which the Gremlins struck three times en route to a 6-5 overtime win, their first against Bay Port.
Captain Jacob Kruse scored two goals, including the game-winner, and added two assists to help the Gremlins earn the victory.
“I have been on the team for a couple of years now, and we’ve never gotten the win against them,” said Kruse. “That was a big win for us.
“I felt like we were really strong in front of the net on the power play. I think we need to do that more often.”
Looking to build off of a strong finish to their third period, Kruse and his linemates — assistant captains Dawson McKay and Taavi Rajala — came out hard in the overtime, leading to an early scoring chance by Kruse on a shot from the high slot that Colton Kimps got just enough of to redirect it off the right post.
A minute and a half later, Rajala got behind the Pirates’ defense and had a chance of his own that Kimps stopped. He would not get the next one.
Kruse got loose in the high slot after getting a pass from McKay. Looking up, Kruse found an opening and beat Kimps for the game-winner at 1 minute, 52 seconds.
Gremlins coach Corey Markham was pleased with the way his team worked in the extra session.
“We had great chances right away,” said Markham. “We had two posts before the goal. We kept them bottled up. In overtime, you want to get pucks to the net and we were able to do that.”
The Gremlins were awarded a power play just 50 seconds into the contest. It took some time for Houghton to settle in, but once they did, McKay moved the puck out sophomore Justin Norkol at the left point. Norkol faked a shot and slid the puck over to sophomore Kevin Bostwick. Bostwick wasted little time blasting a puck past Kimps at 2:17.
Matej Huncik evened the game for the Pirates with a shot from the left circle while on the power play at 6:31.
Alex Piotrowski gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead when he knocked a rebound home at 7:55.
On their second power play, the Gremlins evened the game when Bostwick moved the puck over to Kruse. Kruse’s first shot attempt was blocked, but his second shot beat Kimps at 9:14.
With Houghton back on the power play almost immediately, Rajala gave the Gremlins their second lead of the night at 9:33 when he banged a rebound home.
“We stressed, going in, getting pucks to the net,” said Markham. “That was the biggest key for us in this win.”
Pirates coach Mike Buchan felt his team wasted opportunities by taking five first-period penalties.
“We need to be better [Saturday],” said Buchan. “We allowed four power play goals. We didn’t get the job done on the penalty kill, and that hurt us.”
On their fourth advantage of the period, the Gremlins thought they scored again when McKay pushed a backhand past Kimps. The goal was waved off by the officials.
In the second period, the Pirates evened things at 3-3 when Joe Cavil’s shot from the blue line beat Gremlins goaltender Will Stier on the power play at 5:53.
McKay regained the lead for the Gremlins while shorthanded at 14:25 when he took a pass from from Kruse while crashing the net and beat Kimps with a deke.
Spencer Kring evened the game at 4-4 with the Pirates on a two-man advantage.
Rajala regained the lead for the Gremlins 7:56 into the third period when McKay’s shot rebounded out front and he knocked the puck home on another power play.
While on yet another advantage in the latter stages of the third, the Gremlins found themselves tied up again when Kring skated the puck into the Gremlins zone and fed Max Moore for a shorthanded goal at 10:28.