Hancock forward Sam Bastian controls the puck in the offensive zone during a game against Northville Saturday at the Houghton County Arean in Hancock. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

Hancock completes comeback to top Mustangs

HANCOCK — Hours after Scott Mikesch resigned as head coach of the Hancock Bulldogs hockey team, the Bulldogs overcame a 2-0 deficit to earn their sixth win of the season by defeating the Northville Mustangs, 5-3, Saturday at the Houghton County Arena.

Despite the turmoil of the early morning meeting in which the players learned of their head coach’s decision, interim coach Jeff Mikesch felt that his group showed incredible poise in finding a way to have success.

“Even with everything that went on this morning, kids are resilient,” Jeff Mikesch said. “They were able to clear their minds after we met with them this morning. They got back home and got a little rest and came back to the rink. We could tell, when we spoke to them, that they were ready to play hockey here this afternoon.”

However, for the first 4:01, Jeff Mikesch admits that he was surprised that his team could not translate their pre-game energy into success on the ice as the Mustangs set the tone, getting an early power play and scoring just 18 seconds later at the 1:00 mark when their captain, Tommy Loebach found the net.

They struck again 3:01 later when Nick Novak created space for himself in the offensive zone and skated in before beating Bulldogs goaltender Saku Cunard with a wrist shot.

Even with concerns about his junior netminder’s start, Jeff Mikesch elected to stick with Cunard, who responded by shutting down the Mustangs for much of the rest of the game.

“We had some concern early with what transpired,” he said, “when we spoke about that as coaches. But, we felt as though we needed to get him through the first period and get himself (settled) down.

“We’ve seen that from Saku at other times this year. Sometimes it takes him a little bit longer than need be to get into the game. That’s one of the things that we’re working on with him.”

The only other blemish for Cunard came on a power play in the second period. Just six seconds after junior winger Sam Roberts took his second penalty of the game for Hancock (6-8 overall), Nate Ewasek found the back of the net at 16:46.

Mustangs coach Ryan Ossenmacher felt that faceoffs were one of the only things that worked as intended in the loss.

“I think that is a growth area,” he said. “We do have a tendency to get pretty good jumps on draws. Especially when you’re on a power play, you can get set up right away and get a puck in the net, before they have the chance to set up their kill. That’s when success can come. That did happen tonight both times.”

As for the Bulldogs, senior winger Sam Bastian found a way to get the hosts on the board at 11:11 of the first period when he pounced on a rebound off a shot from sophomore winger Ian Nordstrom and he surprised Mustangs goaltender Jackson Morgan with a wrist shot.

The goal was a major turning point for the Bulldogs.

“Our team is not known for scoring goals, so when we get them, however we get them, it’s a big thing,” Jeff Mikesch said. “It creates energy within our lineup, and you could tell, once we get that guys build confidence and we start to move pucks better, not only just our forwards, but our defensemen, we just thought after that first goal overall, we took control of the game.”

From there, Hancock’s two top offensive players, co-captain Calvin Heinonen and junior center Bryce Hanner got to work.

Heinonen scored his third goal in three games at 4:19 of the second period. Hanner picked up the primary assist on the goal.

Hanner then scored the game’s next goal at 6:37 when a blocked shot kicked right to him and he buried a quick shot. He struck again on the power play 14:23 into the third period to seal the win.

Hancock’s other goal, scored by senior defenseman Mich Cora at 7:57 of the second period, was assisted by both Heinonen and Hanner.

For the Bulldogs, having Hanner and Heinonen both generating offense will be key to any success the team has in the second half of the season.

“It’s huge,” said Jeff Mikesch. “That line, obviously, we’ve had those two split up (in recent weeks), but we realize, for our lineup right now, (putting them back together is) what we have to do to try to generate some scoring. Bennett Sturos is a great complimentary player for that line because he dogs so many pucks, and wins a lot of 1-on-1 battles, and is hard to play against.

“Those guys are able to make plays off of that. So, they were our best line this weekend. It was good to see the jump that they had, especially today after what they had to go through this morning and how they responded.”

Giving up three goals in the second period, according to Ossenmacher, was due to how the Mustangs lost focus.

“We’re a meat and potatoes, peanut butter and jelly, whatever you want to put it, a pretty simple team,” Ossenmacher said. “That’s how we have to play. When we try and get outside of that box, things don’t go real well.”

Freshman defenseman Todd Kilpela also added three assists in the contest.

Cunard made 29 saves to earn the win.

Bulldogs score in all three periods, but fall against Wildcats

The Bulldogs scored two power play goals, one in each of the first two periods, and added one at even strength in the third, but that was not enough to overcome a three-goal second period by the Novi Wildcats as the visitors came away with a 5-3 win Friday night at the Houghton County Arena.

Sophomore winger Ian Nordstrom got the Bulldogs on the board first with a power play goal at 11:35 of the first period.

The Wildcats evened things with a power play goal of their own 2:13 into the second period off the stick of Alex Czapski. The Bulldogs responded at 3:58 with their second power play goal of the game when Heinonen scored.

The Wildcats got goals from Luke Londo and Gabe Armstrong to get their first lead of the night, 3-2, going into the third period.

Armstrong added to the Wildcats’ lead 9:38 into the final frame. Sophomore winger Jackson Sinkowski answered for the Bulldogs at 13:06.

However, that was as close as Hancock got, as Teddy Donahue regained the two-goal lead for the Mustangs with a goal at 16:49.

Up next

Hancock travels Tuesday to face Kingsford. Opening faceoff is set for 7 p.m.