ROAD WARRIORS: Escanaba Grinds Past Jeffers

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos, and listen to post-game comments from Bryce Buchbinder, Jayger LaMarch, Brayden Martineau, and Coach Andy Johnson. Also click to listen to Cody Nelson's player spotlight interview.

HOUGHTON---The Escanaba High School hockey team wrapped up a three-games-in-three-days trip Thursday night with a hard-fought 2-1 win over the Painesdale-Jeffers Jets at Michigan Tech University. Brayden Martineau scored the go-ahead goal with 6:10 left in the game and then the Eskymos killed off two Jets power plays to preserve the victory.

The win came after the Eskymos split two games downstate in Alpena and then drove to the Copper Country to play the Great Lakes Conference game against the Jets.

"They all wanted this one," Eskymo Coach Andy Johnson said. "You don't want to come up here lose, especially on the three-game road trip that we're on. They wanted this one bad, and they wanted to finish this one playing good, hard hockey. It was a good team effort on both of our goals today."

"It was so hard with the short bench we've got," Martineau said. "Three games and three days, and over 15 hours in the bus. That does a lot to your body. It's hard to come out and still have some fight in you."

"It was long," said Jayger LaMarch, who scored Escanaba's first goal. "But it's a big confidence booster coming out of the week 2-0-1. That was good. Now it's time to heal up and get back ready to go (next week)."

Escanaba faced a good goaltender for a second straight day. After Alpena's Aidan Schultz stole one from the Eskymos in a shootout Wednesday downstate, Jeffers' Simon Rajala nearly did the same on Thursday. He stopped 36 of the 38 shots he faced.

"Their wingers collapase low and they just clog up that slot area," Johnson said. "They don't let you in. And when a puck does get in there, their goaliejust gobbles it up. No rebounds. He's just solid. It's hard to get pucks by him. I told him that after the game."

Escanaba goaltender Bryce Buchbinder may have only faced 16 shots, stopping 15, but he made clutch saves at clutch times. Buchbinder stopped Kailob Bianco on a breakway in the second period, then turned back four shots on a pair of Jeffers power plays late in the game.

"He (Rajala) played superb today, so I had to step up my game to match his," Buchbinder said. "Today, we did a really good job on the penalty kill. Wd didn't give up a lot of chances. We did a good job of keeping it in their end. Jeffers is a very physical team and they're a smart team. They set up screens, pass from the point, and then they try to bury rebounds. So, you've just got to be 'big' on the line."

After a scoreless first period, Trevor Halonen scored a short-side goal to give Jeffers a 1-0 lead. But late in the second period, Trevor Streichert worked the forecheck behind the Jeffers net and Jayger LaMarch was in front of the net to bang home the tying goal.

"We knew we needed to get the pucks deep," LaMarch said. "Nothing else was working. So that's what we did. Streichert grined one out, and saw me out in front."

The go-ahead goal in the third period started with hard work from freshman Riley Stannard, who out-worked his man along the Eskymo blue line and sprung Karson Krutina and he passed it to Martineau, who roofed it to give Escanaba a 2-1 lead.

"I'm super proud of my linemates," Martineau said. "Stannard, he hurt his quad muscle in the first period and said he was gonna play through it. He made a great play on our blue line coming out of the defensive one. He just kind of chipped it out of there, and it was me and Karson on the 2-on-1. I was just screaming (at Krutina for the puck) and he made a nice pass. I just buried it under the bar."

Escanaba improved to 7-5-0-1 on the season while Jeffers fell to 2-4-1-0 on the season.

The Eskymos get some much-needed rest before resuming conference play next Thursday night, before hosting Manistique in a non-conference match-up next Friday night.