Hancock goaltender Dawson Kero (30) makes a save against Kingsford on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, in Iron Mountain, Mich. (Adam Niemi/Iron Mountain Daily News)

IRON MOUNTAIN — Hancock’s power-play scored four goals en route to an 8-3 win over Kingsford on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs (19-6) were 4 of 5 with the man advantage along with a short-handed goal in the win.

“It seemed like all game long we stayed a step ahead of them. There was always just a little bit and in the third period we just wanted to finish it off,” Hancock coach Dan Rouleau said. “Our special teams was really good tonight. Our power-play moved the puck two, three times and we had a goal. Very good movement — it almost seemed like easy goals, but they just moved it so well tonight. On the penalty kill we controlled the puck a lot. Our special teams were very good tonight.”

Dawson Kero’s 27 saves backstopped against Kingsford’s high-speed attack throughout the game. Kero faced 15 shots in the second period as the Flivvers (16-7-1) hurt their chances by making penalties and keeping the tilt in Hancock’s favor.

Alex Nordstrom’s five goals and one assist led Hancock’s offense. He scored all four of the Bulldogs’ power-play goals.

Nick Murvich shot the puck directly off the faceoff for Kingsford’s goal with 10:38 remaining in the third period.

But then Hancock took advantage of a 5-on-3 when Nordstrom’s goal opened the game for the Bulldogs. It was a back-breaker for Kingsford, who had threatened with multiple quality scoring chances in the second and third periods.

Kingsford started Evan Hedtke in goal but came out after misplaying the puck behind the net and allowing an unassisted goal to Teddy Randell in the second period. The goal broke a 2-2 deadlock. Trevor Anderson came in off the bench and was immediately put to the test by Hancock.

“Just trying to find somebody that’s hot. You hate doing that. You don’t want to embarrass the kid and you don’t want to make that change halfway through and put someone cold in,” Kingsford coach Dennis Murvich said.

Rouleau said his team also has to stay out of the penalty box after committing five penalties. Despite that, he was pleased with his team’s special teams play.

“We hate to be on the penalty kill but that worked so well tonight. When we took a penalty, ‘We said let’s take advantage of that.’ Our movement was just great,” Rouleau said.

Daunte Fortner, a Kingsford junior and one of the state’s leading scorers, returned to the Flivvers after a week-long stay with the Corpus Christi IceRays of the North American Hockey League. Although he didn’t tally a point against Hancock, Rouleau said Fortner and his linemate Nick Murvich are a couple tough matchups for his team.

The Bulldogs are gearing for another state championship run with a core of eight seniors. Rouleau said the schedule has been tough.

“We’ve lost a few games lately but the quality of opponents has been very high — Plymouth, Brighton — and we’ve played them tough,” Rouleau said. “We ran a pretty tough schedule this year. You look at Hancock, Houghton and Calumet, there’s two of the top three teams in the state who are going to be gone after the first round in the regionals, which is kind of disappointing. Marquette and Kingsford have to play the first game, same thing. Two quality teams in that region have to play right off the bat. I guess it’s time for a seeding situation in the playoffs. Hopefully we’ll have a good run in the playoffs. If we have as good a run as we did two years ago, we’ll have a state championship. Not only that, but we’ll set a school record for wins in a season. We’ve had a good year.”

Hancock hosts Houghton at Michigan Tech’s MacInnes Student Ice Arena in the first round of the playoffs at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Kingsford hosts Marquette at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

– – –

Hancock 2 3 3 — 8

Kingsford 1 1 1 — 3

First Period

HHS – Austin Salani (Alex Nordstrom), 9:12

KHS – Drew Hebert (Ethan Fox), 5:34

HHS – Nordstrom (Colton Salani, Teddy Randell), power-play, 3:47

Second Period

KHS – Pete Ropiak (Lee Hedtke), power-play, 16:28

HHS – T. Randell (unassisted), short-handed, 10:27

HHS – Nordstrom (C. Salani), power-play, 1:13

Third Period

KHS – Nick Murvich (unassisted), 10:38

HHS – Nordstrom (A. Salani), power-play, 4:32

HHS – Nordstrom (T. Randell, Teddy Perrault), 3:29

HHS – Nordstrom (C. Salani), power-play, 0:50

HHS KHS

Penalties 6/20:00 5/10:00

Power-play 4-5 1/5

Saves Kero 27 Hedtke/Anderson 18