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Copper Kings earn 6-1 win over Kingsford at home

Jamie Glenn/Daily Mining Gazette Calumet’s Dean Loukus attempts a shot on Kingsford’s Evan Hedtke during a game Thursday at the Calumet Colosseum.

CALUMET — A young Kingsford Flivvers team kept the game alive for the first period and part of the second. However, a strong offensive core from the Calumet Copper Kings began to shine through as the momentum shifted in the second and third periods of the game Thursday at the Calumet Colosseum. In the end, the Copper Kings emerged victorious, 6-1.

Copper Kings coach Dan Giachino liked the creativity he saw from his side of the ice.

“We controlled a good chunk of the play, especially in the offensive zone,” said Giachino. “I thought we were pretty creative. When we attacked with speed through the neutral zone, we created some good scoring chances (for) ourselves.

“I was pretty happy with our offensive effort. Defensive effort could’ve been a little better, but overall, I was happy with how things went.”

The game looked a little different from the Kingsford side of the ice. Coach Dennis Murvich saw a spark from his players but two tough goals put the game out of reach early in the third.

“We just came out flat,” said Murvich “We’ve said (that) we’re young and inexperienced, but that’s not an excuse. We’ve played some good teams this year (and) battled them quite a bit harder than we did tonight. That’s something we’re going to have to take care of in practice. We just didn’t work hard tonight.

“For awhile there in the second period we had our legs about us (with) some quality scoring chances. We got the game to within a goal, despite how horrible we played to that point. We (were) one shot from tying it up and making something out of it.”

Sometimes, two goals make all the difference.

“Two tough goals right out of the gate,” said Murvich. “Our defensive zone coverage was brutal tonight. We’re young back there, but we’ll take this as a learning experience. We’ll have to get tougher (and) better.”

Calumet opened the scoring when sophomore Dean Loukus advanced down the left side of the ice to set up sophomore winger Tanner Rowe, who then got the puck over to Gabe Coppo who scored on a shot into the upper right corner of the net the first goal of the night at 11:16.

Rowe would get his first of two goals in the second period at 15:39. His second came in the final period off a pass from Dean Loukus at 3:11.

“Brent had another solid game for us,” said Giachino. “He leads us offensive just about every night. (He’s) consistent and is always creating and attacking and certainly had another solid game.

“I thought our gray line of Tanner Rowe, Gabe Coppo and Dean Loukus had a really good game tonight. they controlled the puck. They controlled the play and created chances just about every time they were on the ice.”

Momentum from a strong second period built with a goal from senior forward Rylan Anderson off a strong pass from Brent Loukus 4:10 second into the second.

The Flivvers would get their only goal of the night at 9:34 of the middle frame.

Three third period goals would give the Copper Kings the cushion needed to seal the win. Nolan Jenich struck at 2:40, which was later added to by Brent Loukus and Rowe.

Giachino saw things come together for the Copper Kings in the final 17 minutes and hopes to use the win to strengthen his team, who has seen some offensive struggles prior to this win.

“We had a ton of scoring chances in the second period (but) we were just missing a little bit here (and) there,” said Giachino. “Finally, in the third period we were able to put some things together and connect some passes and finish a little bit more.

“I don’t think we did anything different or anything special (but) we finished where as earlier in the game we didn’t.”

“We just haven’t had a lot of puck luck,” said Giachino. “I hope that third period kind of pushes us in the right direction here over the next couple of weeks. (I think it could) get us going a little bit, as far as the goal-scoring department goes. That’s the biggest thing I’m seeing right now.”

Murvich has a lot he would like to see his young team improve on as the season goes on.

“We’re going to work on net front presence,” he said. “We’re going to talk about poise with the puck in the offensive zone and on the half wall on breakouts. I thought we turned the puck over way too much tonight and then we have to work through our defenseman and centers and figure out teams that cycle well like Calumet. It’s hard to have a lot of positives in a game like that, but we’ll get better.”

Copper Kings junior goaltender Alexander Studebaker made 13 saves to earn the win. Kingsford goaltender Evan Headltke made 34 saves in the loss.

Scoring

Kingsford 0 1 0 – 1

Calumet 1 2 3 – 6

First period

1, CLK, Gabe Coppo (Tanner Rowe, Dean Loukus), 11:16

Second period

2, CLK, Rylan Anderson (Brent Loukus), 4:10

3, KHS, Ethan Fox, PP, 9:34

4, CLK, Rowe, 15:39

Third period

5, CLK, Nolan Jenich (Alex Mattila, Seth Coppo), 2:40

6, CLK, Rowe (Dean Loukus), 3:11

7, CLK, Brent Loukus (Nick Djerf), 6:44

Saves

KHS, Hedtke 9 11 8 – 28

CLK, Studebaker 3 6 4 – 13

Power plays

KHS: 1/2; CLK: 0/0

Penalties

KHS: 0/0; CLK: 2/4

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