Eskymos Skate Past Redmen In Home Opener, 3-2

WELLS----There's nothing quite like beating your arch-rival in your first home game of the season. After playing three games on the road, the Escanaba Eskymos played at home for the first time and beat the Marquette Redmen, 3-2, as three different Eskymos scored goals.

"I thought the kids played well," Escanaba Coach Matt Hughes said. "I thought we could have cleaned up some aspects of the ice. I thought we turned the puck over a little bit in the defensive zone when we shouldn't have."

"I thought we could have supported each other a little bit better as far as offensively," Hughes continued. "Sometimes we gave the puck up because we didn't the suppport from the second guy. But that'll come in time. It's a process, and the kids will get better, game by game."

When the Eskymos did break down in their own zone, goaltender Jack Valentine was there to save the day. After not seeing any quality shots in the first period, Valentine faced five of them during a Redman spurt late in the period. One glanced off of his goalie mask.

Garth Wickham scores to make it 1-0.

"They didn't really have much going for the start of the first period, and then, all of a sudden, they just shot it (off his mask)," Valentine said. "It was kind of a high one and it was hard to control the rebound. It ;popped back out and they just kept getting a few shots and finally, defense cleared it."

Valentine made 25 saves and was picked the game's #1 star.

"Jack played well," Hughes said. "He made some key saves, especially when it was a one-goal game early on."

The Eskymos scored a power play goal just 2:09 into the game as the Redmen had trouble in their own zone. Garth Wickham was loose in front of the net and scored, with Nick Aird getting the assist. Then, later in the period, another Marquette turnover led to an unassisted goal for Chris LeMire. It's LeMire's sixth goal in the last three games.

Marquette closed to within 2-1 early in the second period on a goal by Anthony Fedrizzi, but later in the period, the Eskymos got a 3-1 lead when Calvin Pinar scored off what turned out to be an arrant pass from Dylan Gauthier.

"He told me that it wasn't meant for me," Pinar laughed. "He said he wrapped it around to Jack Williams, but Jack whiffed, and then it popped right out to me. I knew I had the oppportunity, so I had to raise it because the goalie is smaller and he was going down."

Kristian Jackson scored late in the third period to bring the Redmen to within 3-2, but with the goalie pulled for the extra attacker in the final seconds, the Eskymos won a pair of key face-offs and ran out the clock by trapping the puck along the boards.

Goaltender Jack Valentine several saves

Marquette (3-1) outshot Escanaba, 27-17.

"This feels great," said Pinar, who was picked the game's #2 star. "Taking the momentum from last year and bringing it this year. It always feels good to beat the rival."

Escanaba (3-1) hosts Houghton on Saturday. The game time has been changed because of an Ice Skating Competition in the rink. The hockey game will start at 5:00. You can hear it live on WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos taken by Mary Gauthier and videos by Mike Dagenais. You can also hear radio replays there.

Date	Time	Opponent	Score	Record

11/20	7:00 PM	at Alpena Wildcats	1 - 2 (L)	0-1-0

11/21	1:00 PM	at Alpena Wildcats	7 - 2 (W)	1-1-0

11/24	7:00 PM	at Kingsford Flivvers	3 - 2 (W)	2-1-0

12/1	7:00 PM	Marquette Redmen	3 - 2 (W)	3-1-0

12/5	5:00 PM	Houghton Gremlins	1 - 0 (W)	4-1-0

12/7	7:00 PM	at Negaunee Miners	13 - 0 (W)	5-1-0

12/12	1:00 PM	Hancock Bulldogs	2 - 5 (L)	5-2-0

12/18	5:00 PM	at Midland Dow High School	1 - 3 (L)	5-3-0

12/19	12:00 PM	at Midland Chemics	5 - 3 (W)	6-3-0

12/30	7:00 PM	Painesdale-Jeffers Jets	8 - 1 (W)	7-3-0

1/3	1:00 PM	Cheboygan Chiefs	8 - 0 (W)	8-3-0

1/8	7:30 PM	Central Algoma, Ontario	4 - 1 (W)	9-3-0

1/9	1:00 PM	Central Algoma, Ontario	9 - 2 (W)	10-3-0

1/15	4:00 PM	Macomb Dakota	5 - 4 (W)	11-3-0

1/16	12:30 PM	Grand Haven High School	10 - 0 (W)	12-3-0

1/19	7:00 PM	at Marquette Redmen	2 - 0 (W)	13-3-0

1/21	7:00 PM	Calumet Copper Kings	2 - 4 (L)	13-4-0

1/28	6:00 PM	at Chelsea Bulldogs	3 - 3 (T)	13-4-1

1/29	10:00 AM	at Romeo High School	3 - 5 (L)	13-5-1

1/30	12:00 PM	at Berkley-Ferndale United	4 - 4 (T)	13-5-2

2/4	7:00 PM	Kingsford Flivvers	4 - 1 (W)	14-5-2

2/13	1:00 PM	at Houghton Gremlins	3 - 3 (T)	14-5-3

2/19	5:00 PM	at Calumet Copper Kings	2 - 2 (T)	14-5-4

2/20	1:00 PM	at Hancock Bulldogs	2 - 3 (L)	14-6-4

2/25	7:30 PM	Negaunee Miners	8 - 3 (W)	15-6-4

3/1	7:00 PM	Marquette Redmen	1 - 2 (L)	15-7-4