Houghton center Michael Maillette leaps over Fond du Lac goaltender Spencer Shober in order to stuff a puck past him during the third period of a semifinal game of the John MacInnes Holiday Hockey Classic Wednesday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — In the opening game of the 48th Annual John MacInnes Holiday Hockey Classic, the Houghton Gremlins hockey team proved to be mean hosts for the Fond du Lac Cardinals Wednesday night at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

Senior center Michael Maillette led the way with two goals in the contest. Stipech, whose team has been struggling a bit to score goals lately, is more comfortable in close games than the coaching staff seems to be.

“We’re comfortable in close games,” he said. “I think it’s more frustrating for the coaches. The kids seem to be just like, ‘Next shift.’ When we do start to get them to go, then I think we can be a really good team.”

Stipech said that his team needs Maillette to contribute offensively on a consistent basis if they want to have success until other players find their scoring touch.

“Right now, we’re relying on him for offense, and we’re fortunate that he’s been getting enough,” Stipech said. “We want to get to the point where we don’t have to, but, I mean, he scored.”

Maillette’s first goal came 55 seconds into the middle frame on an offensive zone entry with speed. Maillette took advantage of a strong drive by junior winger Jace DeForge’s speed, which drew away a defender. Maillette quickly filled that space with speed of his own. He cut to the net, made a move to his backhand, and buried the puck behind Cardinals goaltender Spencer Shober.

His second goal looked very similar to his first in that DeForge again did a good job on the zone entry to create time and space for Maillette to work. He got the puck to Maillette, who again split the Cardinals’ defense, made a move to his forehand, and got the puck around Shober before depositing it in the back of the net.

The Gremlins (11-0 overall) tested Shober over and over again in the opening frame, but the junior stood his ground as his teammates struggled to shake off the trip north. In all, Shober stopped all 14 shots sent his way. He made 30 saves before the night was over.

Blake Spies had two different chances in the opening frame to give the Cardinals the lead. The first came just over two minutes in when he got a lead pass behind the Gremlins’ defense, skated in and wristed a shot towards the low corner of the net to goaltender Bryant Lee’s right. During his second chance, which came about three minutes later, he surprised the Gremlins by making a drop pass to Eli Stewart, who fired a wrist shot that Lee stopped.

Coach Ryan Sarazin, a former Gremlins defenseman in his playing days, felt that while the shot total did not show it, his team played hard.

“I thought we played hard. I really liked Houghton’s Intensity,” he said. “I really liked Houghton’s Intensity. They played with good speed, and they challenged us right off the bat. So again, I thought we did what we could to keep up with our pace.”

The Gremlins controlled much of the action into the second period, and the first tally from Maillette allowed them to continue to press their advantage throughout the second period. They held the Cardinals’ power play at bay throughout the two advantages the visitors had, and then continued to put pucks on net.

After the Cardinals’ Caden Umentum had a scoring chance with just over a minute left in the frame, Maillette had a golden opportunity at the other end with 62 seconds left, but his cut to the net was stopped by Shober.

A little over a minute after Maillette’s second goal, the Cardinals had a golden opportunity to even the game as they were awarded 1:49 of two-man advantage after DeForge and Teegan Tapani were both whistled for penalties 11 seconds apart.

The Cardinals got a couple of pucks through to Lee, but he kept the Gremlins up by two.

Sarazin felt that opportunity proved costly for his team.

“I had a chance on a 5-on-3 down the stretch,” he said. “I thought that could have been the momentum changer we needed. Not a great night, obviously, shot total-wise, but I thought that maybe could have changed the game around. We just weren’t quite able to get some looks.”

For the Gremlins, that was the first two-man advantage they had to kill off this season, and Stipech was proud of how his group kept their poise throughout the entire stretch.

“That was huge,” he said. “That was our first 5-on-3 kill of the season. We worked on it in practice, saying that someday we’re going to need it. When it came time, they knew what to do. Guys blocked shots, and they were intuitive and communicated. Our best killer was our goalie.

Houghton added an insurance goal at 13:51, when sophomore winger Connor Arko skated with the puck into the left circle near the faceoff dot and then wired a wrist shot that beat Shober. Senior defenseman Connor Raffaelli, who already had an assist earlier in the game on Maillette’s first goal, picked up the lone assist on Arko’s tally.

From there, Lee shut the door and held the Cardinals off the scoreboard, finishing with 14 saves to earn the shutout.

BULLDOGS LOOM

With the win, the Gremlins earned a rematch with the Hancock Bulldogs in the championship game on Thursday. The two teams battled to a 1-0 win for Houghton at the Houghton County Arena on Tuesday, Dec. 5.