Wood Scores Four As Eskymos Overpower Flivvers

WELLS---The upperclassmen came to play in a big way Tuesday night as the Escanaba High School hockey team posted an 8-2 win over the Kingsford Flivvers on home ice.

Senior Steve Wood scored four goals and added an assist. Senior Derek Chaillier had two goals and an assist. Junior Levi Wunder didn't score a goal, but had five assists.

Seniors Quintin McCarthy and Jeff Lyle were both solid back on the blue line.

Escanaba Hockey Coach Matt Hughes liked most of what he saw Tuesday night.

"I thought the upperclassmen did step up tonight," Hughes said. "They did a nice job of creating time and space out there."

"We know this goalie (Wes Paupore). We've seen him many times in the past. We know he operates. So we wanted to get a lot of pucks to the net, and get some traffic. Just put a lot of pressure on him from the hash marks down."

They accomplished that goal, for the most part, but despite controlling most of the play, things got a bit hairy for the Eskymos early in the second period.

Kingsford got credit for a goal to cut the Escanaba lead to 3-2 after freshman defenseman Paul Carne accidentally knocked the puck past sophomore goalie Jack Valentine into his own net.

Derek Chaillier gives Escanaba a 5-2 lead.

That's when the seniors stepped up and basically said, "enough is enough".

"I was just thinking: 'It's time to pick it up'," Wood said. "We were all telling the guys: pick it up out there, this shouldn't be happening!"

Said Eskymo senior Dan Ritter: "I wasn't worried too much. We were basically dominating them in the zone, for the most part."

Escanaba went on to score five unanswered goals (two of them by Wood) to turn that 3-2 nailbiter into the comfortable 8-2 margin.

Chaillier gave Escanaba a 1-0 lead just 96 seconds into the game, but Kingsford's Jake Stoner scored an unassisted top-shelf goal to tie the game with 7:06 left in the first period.

Wood came through with a power play goal two minutes later to make it 2-1.

Early in the second period, Wood scored his second goal, with Lyle and Ritter assisting.

But that's when Kingsford's Brien Johnson got credit for the Eskymos' "own goal" that made it a tight 3-2 game with 2:39 gone by in the third period.

Escanaba then went shorthanded after the fluke goal, but killed it off. Then Wood found Charlie Zuidema with a sweet pass and Zuidema scored to make it 4-2.

Charlie Zuidema scores to make it 4-2.

"It was supposed to go to Wunder," Wood admitted. "But Charlie was right there, too, so it worked out."

That opened the floodgates for the Eskymos.

Two minutes after Zuidema's goal, Wunder and Chaillier worked a textbook "give-and-go" play, with Chaillier finishing on his backhand to make it a 5-2 game.

"They play well together," Hughes said of Wunder and Chaillier. "They move the puck very well, especially on the power play. That's what we try to stress. Move that puck around with speed, and get their guys out of position."

"Me and him have been working together since we were young, like squirts," Chaillier said. "And we just have something, I guess. We just know where we're gonna be on the ice."

"I just love playing with him."

Ninety seconds later, Wood completed his hat trick by shoving one past Kingsford goaltender Wes Paupore just before the net come off its mourings. It was 6-2.

Escanaba scored two more goals later in the game. First, it was Ritter, who had several other scoring chances earlier in the game, finally finding the back of the net.

Dan Ritter scores to make it 7-2.

"I missed on a couple (earlier in the game) and I hit one off of the goalie's stick," Ritter, the game's #3 star said. "I finally put one in! It just feels nice coming off a good weekend out Traverse City and coming here. We could have done better in the first and second, but we beared down and put some goals in in the third period."

The final Eskymo goal came off of Wood's stick with 36 seconds left in the game to make it an 8-2 final. It was icing on the cake, a fourth goal, for Wood.

"I thought we came out flat, again, in the first period," Hughes said. "We gradually got better. We finally put some pucks in the net."

Wood got the team's "hard hat" award for hard-work, and the #1 star on the radio.

Chaillier got the #2 star, and an ice pack on his inflamed hand.

"I was in front of the net," he said, "and I caught a shot. Right in the knuckle."

Escanaba outshot Kingsford, 43-14. Paupore made 35 saves for the Flivvers, who fell to 2-9-0 on the season. Valentine had 12 saves for the Eskymos.

Escanaba (11-4-2) is off until next Tuesday, when the boys host the Negaunee Miners. Game time is 7:00. The game will be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com. It will be Senior Night and Gladstone Night at the rink.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see photos taken by Lisa Dagenais, videos taken by Mike Dagenais, and to listen to radio replays and interviews from the game.

Derek Chaillier (10) scores past Kingsford goalie Wes Paupore and Adam Szabo (21). (Lisa Dagenais photo)

Date	Time	Opponent	Score	Record

11/22	7:00 PM	at Houghton Gremlins	0 - 6 (L)	0-1

11/29	7:00 PM	at Alpena Wildcats	5 - 4 (W)	1-1

11/30	1:00 PM	at Alpena Wildcats	3 - 0 (W)	2-1

12/3	7:00 PM	Marquette Redmen	8 - 0 (W)	3-1

12/9	7:00 PM	at Negaunee Miners	7 - 0 (W)	4-1

12/10	7:00 PM	Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils	2 - 4 (L)	4-2

12/14	1:00 PM	Hancock Bulldogs	3 - 0 (W)	5-2

12/20	7:00 PM	Houghton Gremlins	1 - 5 (L)	5-3

12/27	8:00 PM	Painesdale-Jeffers Jets	5 - 2 (W)	6-3

12/29	4:00 PM	Negaunee Miners	5 - 2 (W)	7-3

1/3	6:30 PM	at Cheboygan Chiefs	8 - 0 (W)	8-3

1/4	12:30 PM	at Grand Blanc Bobcats	11 - 3 (W)	9-3

1/11	7:00 PM	Calumet Copper Kings	8 - 1 (W)	10-3

1/14	7:00 PM	at Marquette Redmen	2 - 2 (T)	10-3-1

1/17	6:15 PM	Macomb Dakota	3 - 4 (L)	10-4-1

1/18	1:15 PM	Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett	3 - 3 (T)	10-4-2

1/21	7:00 PM	Kingsford Flivvers	8 - 2 (W)	11-4-2

1/29	7:00 PM	at Sault Ste. Marie Blue Devils	1 - 7 (L)	11-5-2

2/6	2:00 PM	Farmington High School	2 - 4 (L)	11-6-2

2/7	12:15 PM	at Marysville High School	6 - 2 (W)	12-6-2

2/8	12:30 PM	Berkley-Ferndale United	2 - 2 (T)	12-6-3

2/11	7:00 PM	Negaunee Miners	12 - 1 (W)	13-6-3

2/14	7:00 PM	at Calumet Copper Kings	4 - 1 (W)	14-6-3

2/15	1:00 PM	at Hancock Bulldogs	2 - 3 (L)	14-7-3

2/20	7:00 PM	at Kingsford Flivvers	7 - 2 (W)	15-7-3

2/25	7:00 PM	Negaunee Miners	3 - 0 (W)	16-7-3

2/27	7:00 PM	Marquette Redmen	1 - 2 (L)	16-8-3