Bergwall, Redmen Capture Regional Championship

MARQUETTE---The Marquette Redmen scored two goals on a major power play late in the first period and cruised to a 5-0 win over the Escanaba Eskymos Thursday night at Marquette’s Lakeview Arena.

The win gave Marquette a MHSAA Division Two regional championship, earning them a spot in the state quarterfinals next Tuesday in Gaylord.

Marquette was already leading, 1-0, on a Ryan Baldwin goal, when the Eskymos got into severe penalty problems.

First, Grant LaMarche was called for a five-minute major boarding penalty (and a ten minute misconduct) on a hit into the boards.

Then, Nick Kolich was called for a five minute checking from behind penalty.

Baldwin scored his second goal with 4:13 left in the period to make it 2-0, then with the 5-on-3 advantage, Anthony Fedrizzi scored on a pretty back-door pass from Baldwin and it was 3-0.

“I thought our guys did well on that power play,” Marquette Coach Doug Garrow said. “There was a sense of urgency. Any time you have a 5-on-3, it can work for you, or it can work against you. We got a couple goals there and it gave us momentum. If they would have killed it off, then Esky would’ve had the momentum.”

“I didn’t see the one (penalty), but the one that I did see, I think it could’ve been called something else,” Escanaba Coach Matt Hughes said. “I’m not one for ragging on refs, but he didn’t have to dig us for two five-minutes, and not only the five minutes, but one wsas a five and a ten, so we lost him (LaMarche) for an entire period of hockey.”

“It’s unfortunate that penalties kind of decided the game,” Garrow said. “You’ve got to take advantage of your opportunities, and thankfully, we did that tonight.”

Escanaba finally got a power play chance in the second period, but gave up a shorthanded goal as Sean O’Connor game in on a two-on-one and fired it past goaltender Trevor Denome to make it 4-0. A desperate Eskymo team played much better in the third period, putting eleven shots on Marquette goaltender Tyler Bergwall. At one point, Garrow called a time out to get his team refocused.

“I could feel it kind of slipping away,” Garrow said. “It was 4-0, but I didn’t even want them to get one, and turn the momentum. I just wanted to settle them (his players) down.”

“I thought we came out in the third and played some pretty good hockey,” Hughes said.
It worked, as the Redmen closed the scoring with a Dylan Baldwin goal with 1:58 to play, and Bergwall got his second straight playoff shutout by making his 20^th save.

Bergwall has eight shutouts this season.

The story of the game was Denome. He made save after save all night long as the Redmen peppered him with Grade A scoring chances from in close. Denome ended up with 37 saves on 42 shots.

“He made some big saves,” Hughes said. “The goals that they did score were on odd-man rushes and we hung him out to dry. If it wasn’t for him, it really could’ve got out of hand. They put some pressure on us and he made some big saves, and at key points of the game.”

Marquette improved to 19-6-1 on the season. Escanaba finished 12-14-0.

“I’m proud of these kids, the way they battled through some things throughout the year,” Hughes said.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos, videos taken by Micky LaMarch. Also listen to post-game comments from both coaches, and interviews with Karson Krutina, Spencer Bourdeau.