HOUGHTON — For about 37 minutes Tuesday, the Jeffers Jets could not figure out how to do what they do so well, score goals, against the Kingsford Flivvers at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. They had a 2-0 lead, and had thrown 20 shots at Flivvers goaltender Nate Scullon.

Then they brought out the big guns, scoring four times in the third period to land a 6-0 victory.

With the win, the Jets improved to 17-6-1 on the season.

The Jets had not played a game since Friday, Jan. 23, and coach Aaron Helminen attributed some of their slow start offensively to rust.

“I feel like it was coming off of a long break,” he said. “(We were) kind of working through some issues with it, with fighting the puck a little bit. But, I thought the guys stuck with it, ground, and found away in the end.”

Things changed when junior forward Tage Rajala scored his second goal of the night 2:54 into the third. He batted a bouncing puck home for the goal, and the floodgates opened up.

From there, the Jets scored three more times over a 5:20 span to put the game out of reach.

“Guys (were) maybe gripping the stick a little too much, really wanting a goal here and there, instead of scanning the ice and seeing if a teammate’s in a better position or not,” said Aaron. “Some of that decision making early on (wasn’t helping). Then (we) simplified it for the third a little bit, found a way, and things clicked a little bit.”

With alternate captain Blake Heltunen off the ice for tripping, co-captain Brogan Turner got a puck at the top of the left circle in his own end. He bounced it off the boards to get around one defender, and then he beat the other in a foot race from there to the net at the other end of the rink before waiting out Scullon and scoring his 26th goal of the season with a wrister over the right shoulder at 4:35.

“You could kind of see it right there,” Aaron said. “Soon as you saw that puck bounce off the boards. Even though the other ‘D’ (defenseman) was turning, and had about eight, 10 feet on him, ‘Brogues’ was going to just win the foot race and split the D. Then (he) made a good play on the goalie, got him to drop, and put it up upstairs.”

Senior forward Cameron Anderson made it 5-0 when he found the net at 8:43. The goal, his 14th of the season, was on a rebound off a shot from Rajala.

Finally, freshman forward Bryce Maki scored his first career goal to close out the scoring at 9:55. Turner had the lone assist on the play.

Rajala’s first goal came just 34 seconds into the game. Anderson won a faceoff to Scullon’s left, right to Rajala in the slot, who quickly fired a shot that found the net.

Aaron Helminen praised the play of Rajala, Anderson, and senior forward Easton Therrian, who combined for three goals and eight points in the game, driven by Rajala’s two goals and an assist.

“Extremely happy with them,” he said. “We call them our No. 2 line, but there is just stability there. They’ve been kind of constant for us, just solid throughout. Today, we had to look for them to give us that spark, and, obviously, they did that. A couple quick goals off the face off, and got our team, maybe give ourselves a chance to breathe a little bit.

“A game that’s going this way, and you’re a little bit fighting pucks, to get a little bit of relief, and guys relax a little bit, then you (can) play a little different.”

The Jets kept pouring shots at Scullon from there, but they could not solve him. Then, in the late stages of the second period, senior defenseman Griffin Heinonen took a penalty for elbowing. On the ensuing penalty kill, sophomore forward Max Nordstrom netted his 14th goal of the season to extend the Jets’ lead to 2-0. He skated the puck down the right boards and wristed a shot from the bottom of the right circle that seemed to surprise Scullon as it found its way through.

Aaron Helminen mentioned how key that tally was in giving the Jets a cushion in a game where they struggled to find any to that point.

“Anytime that you can get a shorthanded goal (is huge), because otherwise they pop a power play goal, and we’re in a different ball game,” he said. “So, I’m happy to see him (score). I thought he and Brogue did well on all the ‘PKs’ (penalty kills). I think they gave some good looks. They fed off each other. They read off each other.”

Kingsford (9-12 overall) threw 12 shots at co-captain Kasen Helminen, including three in the final 17 minutes, but could not solve him in the game at all.

Up next

The Jets are back in action Thursday when they travel to face Escanaba. Opening faceoff at the Hannahville Ice and Turf Arena is set for 6:30 p.m.