Calumet’s Jim Brey and Portage Lake’s Cody Sivonen battle for possession Friday, at Dee Stadium. Calumet won the GLHL matchup 7-6. (Daily Mining Gazette/Eden Laase)

OUGHTON — Complacency can be the downfall of any team.

And it almost was for the Calumet Wolverines when they took on the Portage Lake Pioneers, Friday at Dee Stadium.

The Wolverines had won seven games in a row, and coach Bruce Coppo said they didn’t come out with the fire he’s accustomed to seeing from his unit.

Portage Lake jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second period, but Calumet didn’t fold. Instead, the Wolverines scored five-straight goals in the third period to gain the lead and eventually defeat the Pioneers 7-6.

“Anytime we play against Portage Lake, we are in for a battle,” Coppo said. “I think our guys got a little bit complacent for a couple of periods. We just told them ‘Hey, let’s get one goal, and then follow it up with another.’ Everything just fell into place after that.”

Portage Lake opened the game with three first-period goals, one each from Jonathan Bostwick, Alex Haapapuro and Ryan Kuntze. Calumet’s Rory Anderson scored to keep the game within striking distance at 3-1.

But it was more of the same in the second period when Tim Viola and Riley McKay tacked on two more for the Pioneers. Alex VanWagner scored for Calumet.

The Wolverines began to have success in the third when they applied pressure by forechecking and keeping Portage Lake from getting odd-man rushes. Coppo also made the decision to continue rotating players in order to keep fresh legs on the ice. It helped keep speed in their attack.

The momentum shifted immediately to start the third when the Wolverines scored three times in three minutes, getting goals from Cody Carlson, Maxx Fredrickson and VanWagner.

Then, at the 10:38 mark, Carlson scored his second goal of the game to give Calumet a 6-5 advantage.

“It was just a lot of hard work and we kept our lines changing quickly,” Coppo said. “We were able to bottle them up and get those three goals to start the third.”

Anderson gave Calumet an insurance goal at 7:22, and the Wolverines needed it.

With 3:31 left to play Portage Lake appeared to score, pulling the Pioneers within one. But the goal was waived off after it was determined that they had an extra attacker on the ice.

Tristan Foltz officially made it 7-6 less than a minute later, but the Wolverines were able to hold off Portage Lake for their eighth-straight win.

Both teams found it difficult to get their offense flowing as there were 24 penalties in the game — 13 for Calumet and 11 for Portage Lake.

“There were so many penalties which kind of throws the game off a little bit, but overall,l I thought we weathered the storm as far as penalty kill,” Coppo said. “It is difficult to get a flow because you can’t keep your lines in tact, some people end up sitting.”

The two teams play tonight at the Calumet Colosseum at 7:30 p.m.