Houghton center Jack Sayen tries to keep the puck away from Calumet defenseman Ted Loukus during a game Tuesday at Dee Stadium in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)
HOUGHTON — In sports, it is a rare occurrence when both coaches feel good about the results of an event. Tuesday night, both Houghton Gremlins hockey coach Micah Stipech and Calumet Copper Kings coach Dan Giachino felt similarly about a 4-1 Gremlins victory at Dee Stadium in that they were both pleased with their team’s efforts.
For Stipech and the Gremlins, the second-ranked team in Michigan, a win at home on Senior Night meant that they finished the regular season undefeated at home. The Gremlins improved to 20-2-1 on the season with the victory.
“Undefeated at home this season, so we feel good about that, sending the seniors off,” he said. “I didn’t think we were horrible. I thought that we got some more intensity in the second and third period, but it wasn’t a situation where I thought that we were playing poorly. I think that we need to hit the net a little bit more, and connect on some more passes, but I thought we did a lot of good things, too.”
For Giachino and the Copper Kings, the loss meant they fell to 6-16-2 with one game left in the regular season, but to hold the Gremlins to a one-goal deficit going into the third period of a game they played without captain Cam Anderson due to illness, and multiple others slowed by illness as well, was a very positive result, even if the Gremlins added two more in the third to seal the game.
“We’re missing our top player out of our lineup,” Giachino said. “He’s leading in points, and he’s our best player, or our best forward, in our own end, too. So, some of those things, some of those mistakes and things, he’s always in the right spot to clean some things up.”
However, it is tough to play 51 minutes against Houghton at Dee Stadium without your top offensive player, and that showed in the third period.
While shorthanded, with senior defenseman Wyatt Jenkins in the box for the second time in the contest, Houghton made the most of a puck turned over the neutral zone. Junior defenseman Hudson Markham snatched it up and fed it ahead to junior center Jay Halonen. Halonen exploded forward, blowing past two Calumet defenders, skated in alone on senior goaltender Hunter Tuoriniemi and put the puck just under the crossbar at 10:46. The goal put Houghton up 3-1 with just over six minutes left.
Stipech was proud to see Halonen finish off the play and be rewarded for how hard he works every game.
“He’s been so huge for us,” Stipech said. “You see him getting better by the day and getting faster and getting stronger. He is a leader on our team. He brings energy with his voice. He brings energy with his effort. He does all the hard things.”
From there, Houghton continued to keep the pressure on Tuoriniemi, who stood tall for the Copper Kings until the game’s final 1:21, when Giachino pulled him for an extra attacker. He finished his night with 43 saves on 47 Gremlins’ shots.
Calumet had one golden opportunity in those final 81 seconds off the stick of sophom*ore forward Luca Matous, but Gremlins goaltender Bryant Lee made the save, one of his 14 in the win.
Sophom*ore winger Connor Arko scored his second goal of the night with just over six seconds left to seal the win.
Arko’s previous tally gave the Gremlins the lead on a power play in the late stages of the second period. Senior forward Michael Maillette moved the puck over to senior defenseman Connor Raffaelli, who fired a shot that Tuoriniemi stopped. However, the rebound bounced to Arko, who was crashing the net, and he lifted the puck over Tuoriniemi’s outstretched left leg for the goal at 15:03.
Through the game’s first half, the Copper Kings actually did everything they could to make life difficult for the Gremlins. They battled for loose pucks. They pushed back when Houghton played physically. And, most importantly, they allowed Tuoriniemi to see shots from the point. They cleared bodies from the slot, which made life much easier on their netminder.
“He (Tuoriniemi) played well,” said Giachino. “He made some, probably about eight to 10 pretty difficult saves, probably two to three a period. I thought we did a good job of letting him see the puck from the outside.”
All of their hard work was rewarded while on the power play in the second period. Sophom*ore forward Erik Loukus, who was playing up a line in Anderson’s spot in the lineup, found sophom*ore winger Nathan Londo in the slot, and Londo surprised Lee with a quick wrister at 5:55.
As big a lift as that play was however, Calumet who has had trouble all season sustaining pressure after scoring a goal, ran into that same problem again Tuesday night as the Gremlins stormed back and struck at 6:37.
Maillette got the puck off a faceoff to Tuoriniemi’s right from Arko, and he quickly made a move behind the Copper Kings’ net. Maillette drove around the net and stuffed the puck in on the other side before a sliding Tuoriniemi could get there.
The quick response was just the spark the Gremlins needed.
“That’s the second time we got scored on first this whole season,” said Stipech. “So, to get an immediate response, and Mikey was going all night. When other guys were kind of quiet, he was going. He was really determined. He earned that one with his work ethic.”
UP NEXT
The Copper Kings are back in action for their season finale Thursday when they host Kingsford at the Calumet Colosseum at 6:30 p.m. The Gremlins travel to Marquette on Friday. Opening faceoff is set for 6:30 p.m. at Lakeview Arena.
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