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HOT SAUCE! Eskymos Survive 4-Overtime Thriller
 IRON MOUNTAIN---Sawyer LaMarch isn’t the biggest guy on the ice, but he comes up big in the biggest moments for the Escanaba High School hockey team. The kid they call “Sauce” did just that Thursday night as the Escanaba Eskymos survived an epic collapse to win their MHSAA Division Two Regional Semifinal game over the Kingsford Flivvers, 4-3, in an incredible four overtimes at the Mountain View Ice Arena. After the Eskymos coughed up a 3-1 lead in the final 73 seconds of regulation time, LaMarch scored the winning goal at the 2:58 mark of the fourth overtime period, assisted, as always, by his older brother Jayger.  “Hard-fought W today,” an exhausted LaMarch said. “Both teams played great. Just a heck of a game. Their goalie (Isaiah Anderson) played outstanding. We couldn’t buy one from him in overtime. We fought hard and finally squeaked out a victory. I really can’t describe the feeling of when that puck went into that net.” Escanaba jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period when Jayger LaMarch and Trevor Streichert scored just 58 seconds apart. But Anderson kept his team in it, making save after save…19 saves, in fact, in the first period alone. The Flivvers got a second period goal from Jaxson Buckley to cut the gap to 2-1, but in the third period, Sawyer LaMarch scored to give the Eskymos a 3-1 lead that looked like it would stand up. But not so fast. Hunter Fortner scored with 1:13 left to keep Kingsford alive, and then, somehow, with 1.1 seconds left, Wyatt Scott tied the game, sending the Flivver crowd into hysterics. Both teams had plenty of chances in the overtime periods, including power plays both ways. But Anderson, and Escanaba’s Dylan Ziemke, both closed the door. In fact, Ziemke made perhaps the save of the night on a point blank shot by Fortner. With a fifth overtime looming, Jayger LaMarch stole the puck from Forter along the boards, and passed it to his little brother for the “saucy” goal that ended a game that went 83 minutes, 2 seconds of playing time. That included 29 minutes of sudden death time, when one mistake could have gone the other way. The previous longest game in Eskymo history was the infamous playoff loss to Marquette in 2008, which Escanaba appeared to win only to have a goal incorrectly waived off. Marquette won that game in three overtimes. Now, 14 years later, the Eskymos have another crack at the Redmen in the regional championship game next Tuesday night at the Wells Sports Complex. Marquette will come to town with a 20-5-1-0 record. Escanaba is 16-9-0-1.  |
