Eskymos Finish Sweep of Central Algoma Huskies

WELLS---It took a while, but they finally solved Drew Gregory.

The goaltender of the Central Algoma Secondary Huskies held the Escanaba Eskymos to just four goals Friday night. But on Saturday, the Eskymos had more success against the 11th grade goaltender and Escanaba sent the Canadian team home with a 9-2 loss.

Escanaba scored three goals in the final two minutes of the first period, and then added three more goals in the first two minutes of the second period to put the game away.

Chris LeMire and Nick Aird both had had tricks, and Charlie Zuidema had two goals and two assists as the Eskymos finished a four-game homestand with four straight wins.

"We put ourselves in a position where we could get everyone in the game," Escanaba Coach Matt Hughes said. "We jumbled up a couple of lines. We were able to create some more offense today."

"We talked with them (LeMire and Zuidema) before the game in a captain's meeting. and they both responded just the way I thought they would."

The game was scoreless until Zuidema scored a power play goal with 4:35 left in the first period, but the Huskies managed to tie it with a power play tally of their own off the stick of Avri Pollari. But Zuidema scored again eight seconds later to make it a 2-1 game.

"Me and my teammates had a good talk about what I was going to do with the puck when we won it (faceoff) back," Zuidema said. "We did what we had to go. Got 'er done."

But that was just the beginning.

The Huskies couldn't make it to the end of the period because LeMire, who was snakebitten in Friday's game, came through with a pair of goals just 16 seconds apart. Garth Wickham and Paul Carne assisted on both of them.

"On the first one, Brodi (goaltender Goddard) made a nice play to Parker (LaMarch)," LeMire said. "He laid it out perfectly for me. I just skated down and shot it and put it in the back of the net. After that, the second goal, it got past the 'D', and he was down, so I deked the goalie and put it in the back of the net again."

That gave Escanaba a 4-1 lead after one period of play, and then, when the second period began, the Eskymos kept up the pressure. Nick Aird scored two goals on consecutive plays, 31 seconds apart, in the first minute of the period. Aird's second goal was a pretty gone, off the cross bar and past a shellshocked Gregory.

Then, a minute after Aird's two goals, Colton Hayes scored to make it 7-1.

Given the way that Gregory played the night before, all of the offense was a sigh of relief for the Eskymo forwards.

"Yesterday was very frustrating," LeMire said. "Coach said 'he's got a good glove, and he's really good up high. So, shoot down low, get rebounds, and hopefully they'll go in."

"Whenever I got the puck, I took my time to see if there's a pass first," Zuidema said. "If not, I kind of shot it. Picked the corner a little better, and made sure that he didn't have an opportunity to make the save."

LeMire completed his hat trick off a beautiful feed from Wickham with a power play goal in the third period, and Aird completed his hat trick with a power play goal 44 seconds later.

Nolan Ford scored the Huskies' final goal, late in the second period.

To his credit, Gregory still stopped plenty of shots, and kept his team from being mercied. The Eskymos fired 52 shots on goal, with Gregory stopping 43 of them. The Eskymos outshot the Huskies, 23-1, in the third period...with Gregory stopping 21.

Escanaba improved to 10-3-0 on the season, and now, the boys take their show on the road. The Eskymos travel to Traverse City next weekend to play in the North/South Showcase. Escanaba's first game is against Macomb Dakota on Friday at 4:00. It will be broadcast live on WGKL-FM (105.5), WCHT-AM (600), and on www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Brandon Kowalkowski, and to hear radio interviews.

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