HANCOCK — The Hancock Bulldogs closed out their regular season on the ice with a 5-3 victory over the visiting Escanaba Eskymos.

Hancock head coach, Scott Mikesch said it was good to go out on a positive note.

“Tonight, we played with more poise,” he said. “Overall, I was very happy to get the win.”

The Bulldogs (11-13-1) came out strong in the first with good puck control. They moved the disc around with patience which has not always been the case according to their coach.

“We did a good job of holding on to pucks and waiting that extra second before taking action,” said Mikesch. “Sometimes we play like the puck is a hand grenade, and we want to get rid of it right away. That wasn’t the case tonight. We were able to control the puck offensively.”

That control led to an early goal in the first for the Bulldogs. At the 14-minute mark, Brady Galetto found the back of the net to make a 1-0 game.

The Eskymos (14-10), however, came back to even the score at the 8:30 mark as forward Jayger LaMarch was able to steal a puck in the neutral zone and drive in solo and score.

The 1-1 tie did not last long as the Bulldogs posted two more goals in the first. Calvin Heinonen found net at the 6:35 mark and less than two minutes later Benett Sturos did the same. It was 3-1 after one in the Bulldogs’ favor.

All of Hancock’s five goals came off the sticks of five different players – another good sign according to Mikesch.

“To have (Brady) Galleto, (Easton) Sintowski and Sturos scored for us is great,” he said. “These are guys who do not score a lot for us, and to have that secondary scoring is going to be important as we head into the post season.”

The start of the second belong to the Eskymos.

“After some choice words in the locker room between periods, we came out in the second and made it a 3-2 game,” said Escanaba’s first-year head coach Andy Johnson. “Cody Nelson got the goal for us, and I was very pleased with his effort as he worked hard all night for us.”

The Eskymos’ defense blanked the Bulldogs in the second but struggled in the final 17 minutes.

Within the first six minutes of the third, Hancock added two more tallies. First came a power-play goal off the stick of Chad Nordstrom and less than three minutes later, Sintkowski fired a bullet from the top of the circle and past Eskymos’ goalie Dylan Ziemke.

MHSAA Division 3 playoff action begins next week as the Bulldogs will face the Houghton Gremlins on Wednesday in regional semifinal action at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena, and coach Mikesch is optimistic.

“I like our chances,” he said. “If we can take better advantage of our scoring opportunities, we can beat anybody.”

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