Houghton’s Cooper Burkman carries the puck against Jefers on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021, in Houghton, Mich. (Eddie O’Neill/The Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON – Many thought Friday night’s hockey game between the Houghton Gremlins (6-2) and the Jeffers Jets (3-4) was going to be a sleeper. The prevailing ideal was that the powerhouse Gremlins would overtake the underdogs 8-0 after two periods was the thinking. However, while the Gremlins did win this one 3-1, it was anything but an easy victory for the top-notch Gremlins. The Jets woke up a weary Dee Stadium and showed a high level of competitiveness.

“This was a tight game and Jeffers competed really hard,” said Houghton head coach, Corey Markham. “They did a great job of blocking shots, and they stuck with it.”

For Jet’s head coach Pat Nettel, Friday night’s game was anything but a loss for his players.

“Everybody thinks Jeffers is an underdog,” he said. “But we came out here and played tough. We had four days to prepare for this one, and we were pumped.”

The Gremlins opened up the scoring half way through the first courtesy of Cam Markham. He nabbed a loose puck of the stick of teammate Gaborik Carlson and poked it in. Markham was right back at it at the very end of the period as well. With just 15 seconds to go in the first, Gremlins’ forward Mike Maillette moved the puck into the Jets’ zone and hit Markham with a picture-perfect pass who one touched it in.

The second period belonged to the Jets. Not only did they shut out the mighty Gremlins but they scored one as well.

“After the first one, I told the guys to keep doing the work,” Nettel said. “We needed to stick to our game plan and grind it our and shut their lanes down, and we did and came out with goal along the way. If we took their space and time away on the ice, I knew we could stay in this one.”

Five minutes into the second a pesky Jeffers’ defense gave way to an offensive flash as Elliot Asiala found the back of the net courtesy of a pass from Brit Heinonen. It was a 2-1 Gremlins’ lead headed into the third.

It was very much a clean hockey matchup as both teams amassed just four minutes of penalties. That was a huge plus for Jeffers as they have struggled in this department according to their coach.

“What kills us on penalties is the fact that we end up playing on our heels, and it’s hard for us to get back up and on the offensive attack,” said Nettel.

As the third got underway, the Jets were still flying high looking for that tying goal. They weren’t going down easy.

“They didn’t give us much to work with,” Markham said. “We were sloppy, and Jeffers was packing us in and not giving us any breathing room.”

However, the Gremlin were able to come up for air with a little more than 3:30 left on the clock. While on a power play, Houghton’s Landon Stevens took a pass from Carlson at the top of the left circle and flew one past the Jets’ goalie Simon Rajala. At 3-1 that’s where the game ended.

The Gremlins outshot the Jets 34-16.

The Gremlins visit Calumet at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.

JHS 0 1 0 — 1

HHS 2 0 1 — 3