Houghton forward Brody Donnelly prepares to shoot the puck during the first period of a game against Calumet Tuesday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — When the Houghton Gremlins hockey team and the Calumet Copper Kings last battled on Friday, Dec. 12, the Copper Kings scored twice in the first period en route to a 4-2 win. Tuesday, the Gremlins sought to flip that around. They did, earning a 3-1 win at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

Alternate captain Noah Maillette scored twice in the third period to lift Houghton to the win, the Gremlins’ fourth straight.

Gremlins coach Micah Stipech stressed to his team how important it was to get off to a good start.

“The schedule, everything was a little bit off here over the holidays,” he said. “We had a morning skate today, and we felt the last time we played them, we didn’t have a good first period. It was important to have a good first, and we did.”

Alternate captain Brody Donnelly got Houghton on the board first at 11:50 of the first period when he buried a rebound off a shot from sophomore defenseman Wesley Mattila.

The Gremlins (8-5-1 overall) thought they had a goal before Donnelly’s tally, but senior forward Jack Sayen’s backhand that slid underneath Copper Kings goaltender Beau Jukuri was determined to not cross the goal line fully.

“We only got one to show for it, though,” said Stipech. “We knew that they would push back in the second, and they did. They pushed us around physically in the second period. Then the third period was one of those, like, who wants it? It was tight.

“Noah Maillette, the snake charmer, managed to get a big one, then a couple other chances, and he was the hero today, but everybody contributed.”

Maillette’s first goal came 5:03 into the third period. Senior defenseman Kade Jenkins forced a turnover and pushed the puck ahead of Maillette, who skated hard into it, then carried it down and beat Jukuri with a wrist shot.

Maillette then struck again for the fifth time in two games with 22 seconds left when he deposited the puck in the back of the empty net.

“All of his goals are hard work and second effort, the second effort stuff, and keeping his feet moving,” Stipech said. “Right now he’s on what would be considered our second line. Him being deadly like that really helps us out with our production. If we’re relying on our first line for everything, then that’s tough against first ‘D’ (defensive) pairs.

“He’s getting matched up against other lines, and other ‘D’ pairs, and he’s making the most out of it.”

The Gremlins outshot the Copper Kings 15-6 in the first period, so Calumet coach Dan Giachino addressed that during the intermission.

“We didn’t have any energy in the first period,” he said. “Just (an) extremely flat first period. Not a lot of intensity, not a lot of defensive effort, let’s put it that way. We did a lot of stick checking, a lot of watching a lot of things in the first period, and I think that put us behind the eight ball, got us on our heels, and obviously got us down, 1-0.

“I thought we’d fixed that in the second and third period. I thought our defensive effort was better, but ultimately you can’t take a period off.”

If the first period was the Gremlins’, the second period, especially the first half of the frame, was nearly all Calumet’s. After sophomore forward Oskar Loukus served an early-period penalty, he got involved in trying to make up for it by attacking the Houghton net. He had two looks just 12 seconds apart, first on a rebound and second when he retrieved a puck in near Gremlins goaltender Brycyn Nettell.

Neither of those chances went in, but at 9:50, while shorthanded, he found the net on a dump-in from center ice. As he skated towards the bench for a change, the puck bounced multiple times in front of Nettell and skipped past him and in.

“He had two or three really good scoring chances in the first half of that period,” Giachino said. “I honestly didn’t see how the puck went in the net, but I’m assuming it was bouncing.

“It’s the reward of the effort you put in. That’s the way sometimes the hockey gods work a little bit. (He) maybe should have had one earlier, but you take that one.”

In the end, Giachino felt his team, which fell to 7-4-1 overall, still found a way to battle, and that will help them down the line.

“This is what I just told the guys, ‘It’s a loss in December at the end of the day, and to a really good hockey team,'” he said. “So, we don’t take 17 minutes off in the game, and maybe, maybe, the result’s different. This is going to be the battle, probably, going right down through the end of the year. It makes for good, exciting hockey.”

Nettell made 26 saves to earn the win for the Gremlins. Jukuri stopped 35 in the loss.

Up next

The Gremlins host Brighton Friday at Dee Stadium. Opening faceoff is set for 7 p.m. Calumet is also in action Friday, hosting Forest Hills Central, at 7 p.m. at the Calumet Colosseum.

Calumet defenseman Dylan Crouch attempts to pass the puck to a teammate during a game against Houghton Tuesday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)