“We were working hard and their goalie was making some desperation saves. We were pretty much giving everything we had, and he was flopping his glove out, and rebounds were going everywhere and we couldn't get on them,” Escanaba Coach Andy Johnson said. “At times, we were sloppy. We played good enough to get a win. It was just too sloppy at times, and that, I wasn't too pleased with.”
 

Hayes, though, was strong in net, and was good at controlling his rebounds.
 

“To control every puck coming at me, it just really controls the game,” Hayes said. “Not letting up any rebounds, they don't have opportunities to find an open net, or an open back door.”
 

The only goal against Hayes came in a wild scramble with less than a minute to play, with the Titan net empty at the other end. It appeared that the net came off its pegs, but the referee never blew the whistle, and the TC West goal ruined the Eskymo shutout.
 

“I feel like they changed the entire way they reffed those last two minutes when they called that icing (giving West an offensive zone faceoff),” a clearly irritated Hayes said. “I think the net was off, and I think they would have blown the whistle if it was the second period.”
 

His coach agreed.
 

“It was a scrum in front,” Johnson said. “Towards the end, they (referees) changed the way they were calling the game. They weren't blowing the whistle until Cully was screaming at him that he had it.”
 

Things got even more dicey when Carson Hughes took a five-minute major boarding penalty, but the Graham Johnson won a faceoff from just outside of his blue line, and Alex Schwalbach took the puck and drilled it more than 100 feet into the empty net.
 

“We came out ready to come back from that loss to Jeffers, and we did,” Hayes said.
 

But it wasn't easy, as Titans goaltender Alonso Ovaitt made save after save, stopping both Nolan Bink and Nick Martinson on breakaways. But the Eskymos got a pair of power play goals on the same play to build a 2-0 lead.
 

First, Graham Johson carried it wide from his own zone, all the way to the Titans zone. He passed to Cale Carter for the goal six minutes into the game.
 

In the second period, it was Bink who rushed the puck wide, and threw it into the crease where Keagan Braun was waiting with his stick on the ice for a 2-0 Eskymo lead.
 

It was very satisfying for Braun, who's known for his physical play that often lands him in the penalty box. But this time, he put a clean hit on the Titan forward, who retaliated with a hard hit on Braun right in front of the referee.
 

That drew the penalty that set up the power play that Braun eventually cashed in on.
 

“It was pretty sweet,” Braun said. “The cheap hits, I mean, they anger me. The only thing you can do is go score another goal. So, we were going down like we practiced. I was crashing the net pretty hard, stick down to the. I called, he passed it, and I just hit it five-hole.”
 

And so, with up two feet of snow on the way for the Traverse City region, the Eskymos had a victory.

They'll try to get another one on Saturday against Traverse City Central, which lost Friday's other game in a shootout to Muskegon Mona Shores, 3-2.
 

OTHER UPPER PENINSULA SCORES
Sparta 5, Negaunee 0
Houghton 8, (at) Marquette 2
(at) Caluet 2, Hancock 1
(at) Sault Ste. Marie 6, M-1 United Griffins 1