MARQUETTE — The Marquette Senior High School hockey team went the distance and beyond to open its season on Tuesday night, scoring with six seconds left in regulation, then winning about a minute and a half into overtime.

The Redmen defeated Houghton 4-3 at Lakeview Arena in Marquette with Ethan Jones having a hand in both pivotal goals.

“It was a hard-fought win between two teams that were pretty evenly matched,” MSHS coach Doug Garrow said. “I liked the way our kids battle and fought.”

Trailing 3-2, Garrow pulled goalie Dylan Sibilsky for an extra attacker with about 30 seconds left in the third. “We kept the play down there (in Houghton’s end) and there was a scramble in front of the net,” the coach said.

The puck squirted out to the blue line, where Jones got possession, then took his time to put a wrist shot on goal that got past Gremlins netminder Will Spier. Teammates Luke Beerman and Joe Phillips earned assists. Marquette was on a power play right off the bat in OT and took advantage just before it ran out when Jones threw another puck at Spier that rebounded and was knocked in by Hunter Doucette with 1:36 gone.

“That was another scramble in front of their net and Doucette got his stick on the rebound,” Garrow said. “Just a dirty goal, but effective. “We’re a pretty young team, but I wouldn’t call it rebuilding. We have the potential to do well, but we’ll have success and win some games this season because of sheer effort.”

The game was scoreless for nearly 30 minutes until the Redmen’s Sean O’Connor scored with a tad under five minutes left in the second. Aydin Frost got the assist. However, Houghton responded just nine seconds later on a shot by Jacob Kruse with an assist going to PJ Donnelly.

“We had a little bit of a letdown after that first goal, but I was pleased with how well we responded when we were down in the third period.”

The visitors, now 0-2, took the lead with 90 seconds remaining in the second on another goal by Kruse, this one shorthanded and assisted by Taavi Rajala. Marquette tied it 2-2 with 4:37 elapsed in the third on a goal by Phillips and assisted by Spencer Samppala, but Houghton retook the lead exactly 5 1/2 minutes later on a Casey Lentowich score assisted by Austin Goudge.

That set up the heroics by Jones & Co. in the waning seconds of regulation and OT. Sibilsky finished with 16 saves while Spier had 17. The Redmen are off for the next week until they travel to the Sault Ste. Marie Convention & Visitors Bureau Showcase, where they play a pair of metro-Detroit teams. Marquette faces Utica Eisenhower at 6 p.m. next Friday and Romeo at noon Saturday, Dec. 3.