Calumet’s goalie Aksel Loukus, left, is shown in action against University of Detroit Jesuit’s Charlie Englehart on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in Calumet, Mich. (Eddie O’Neill/The Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Houghton and Calumet combined to send the University of Detroit Jesuit High School home winless after two weekend games in the Copper Country.

Houghton Gremlins beat UDJ 5-1 on Friday. Calumet edged the Cubs 2-1 on Saturday in the schools’ annual Miner’s Cup game.

Saturday’s game

University of Detroit Jesuit head coach Paul Moretz said he liked what he saw on the ice Saturday night in Calumet much more than what he witnessed Friday night in Houghton.

While the Cubs went down 2-1 to the Copper Kings, he saw a 180 in the way his Cubs played in the annual Miner’s Cup game.

“It was a terrific hockey game, and we knew that last night didn’t represent who we were,” said Moretz. “I don’t know if it was because we laid an egg last night or the Miner’s Cup but these kids wanted this one badly.”

The Miner’s Cup has been a long-standing rivalry game between Calumet and Univ. of Detroit Jesuit. It was established by the Cubs’ longtime previous coach Rick Bennetts who was a Calumet graduate and would annually bring his team up to play his alma mater. While it has typically been a two-game, most-goals-scored series, this year it was just a one-night stand.

While Calumet head coach Dan Giachino would have liked to see a couple more of his Copper Kings’ 32 shots go in, all they needed was two for the win. Those two came in the first period. At around the 12 minute mark came the first. That’s when Calumet’s Brandon Cima fired one in from the top of the circle. The puck deflected off the stick of net minder Nate Schmidt and onto the stick of Gabe Mattila who was in front of the net and ready to push it back in.

Their second goal came several minutes later while on the power play. Paul Sturos came driving up the ice and hit Ayden Williams for a give-and-go goal to make a 2-1 tilt after 17 minutes.

“Our teamwork was very good tonight,” Giachino said. “We didn’t give up any free goals as we have in the last few games, and our defense was spot on.”

Both coaches thought the second period was their teams’ best.

“Honestly, it was a rare full period of hockey for us and perhaps the best 17 minutes of the season,” stated Moretz. “It was a great team effort all night.”

The Cubs’ only goal came on a power play in the second at the 6:54 mark. Jesuit’s Nolan Davis fired a slap shot past Calumet’s goalie Aksel Loukus. However, that was as good as it got for the Cubs.

Giachino said it was Loukus who kept the Copper Kings in the game with just a one-point lead and his team being outshot 35-32 on the night.

“Aksel had a tremendous night,” he said. “He was seeing the puck well and controlling rebounds.”

Jesuit turned up the intensity in the third and pulled their goalie with minutes left in the game but to no avail, and the Calumet squad would go on to keep the Miner’s Cup for another year.

UDJ 0 1 0 — 1

CHS 2 0 0 — 2

Friday’s game

Intensity was the name of the game as the puck dropped on Friday between the Gremlins (11-4) and Cubs (5-9). Detroit Jesuit came out with their “A” game, and it took a few shifts for the Gremlins to catch up.

“They play in a conference that is super high end with some of the best teams in the state,” said Houghton head coach Corey Markham. “That’s how they play, and I think it took a couple of lines to get up to pace, but once we started to play at the pace we needed to, I thought we played very well.”

Friday’s match up was a physical one as well. There were plenty of hard hits and lots of minutes in the penalty box. The Cubs had 26 minutes in penalties, and this included two five-minute majors. The Gremlins had just ten and they took advantage of their man-up time as three of their five goals came on the power play.

The first one came at the 6:46 mark. The Gremlins’ Landon Stevens launched one from the left circle, and it bounced off the pad of the Cub’s goalie Harry Greig. However, Camden Markham was there to push it back in.

Jesuit came back and tied it up before the first intermission. With less than two minutes to go and with a battle in front of the Houghton net, the Cubs’ Charlie Englehart was able to find the puck and the back of the net as well.

Markham cited the second period as his team’s best on the night.

“Our third line scored two goals in the second period and that was a huge gain for us,” he said.

The two goals came within two minutes of each other around the midway point in that period. First, it was Brendan Miller who fed a cross-ice pass to Connor Raffaelli near the goal. Raffaelli then made a perfect one touch backhand goal. Minutes later the play reversed with Raffaelli feeding a pass to Miller who punched it in.

“Those two quick goals really hurt us,” said Jesuit head coach Paul Moretz. “That knocked the wind out of our sails, and we played on our heels for the rest of the game.”

In the third, the Gremlins’ put up two more power-play goals. Kade Farrell scored at the 16-minute mark. Finally, with less than five minutes to go in the game, Stevens took advantage of the man-up advantage and found net thanks to a pass from Markham.

When all was said and done, the Gremlins outshot the Cubs 38-16.

“This was a good night for us,” said Markham. The majority of the game we played up tempo and put up a good physical hard-nosed game.”

UDJ 1 0 0 — 1

HHS 1 2 2 — 5