Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos from the game, and to hear player spotlight interviews with Hunter Allen and Parker Menard.

ALPENA---It was a game they could've won and should've won.

But the Escanaba Eskymos hockey team ran into an extremely hot goaltender, a team that had timely goal scoring, and a little bit of bad luck on Saturday, losing in an overtime shootout to the St. Edward Eagles out of Cleveland, Ohio.

The Eskymos badly outshot the Eagles, 41-21, but goaltender Aiden King made save after save after save, keeping his team alive for what turned out to be a dramatic win in the extra session.

“It was a great game by our kids,” an emotional Eskymo Coach Andy Johnson said. “This game a lot to us. Everybody was working hard. I'm bummed that we couldn't get a bounce, and they had an unfortunate bounce at the end. No we know what it feels like to outplay a top team and not get rewarded. But I'm just so proud of these guys and the way they played.”

“We took a big step this weekend,” Eskymo captain Graham Johnson said. “I'm proud of the boys for that. We have a bunch of great competition coming up and we'll need to battle like this.”

The game was scoreless after the first period only because of the play of King, who stopped all eleven shots, and none of them were cheap. Then in the second period, the Eagles caught a break when a loose puck ended up on the stick of Carter Smith, who was sprung on a breakaway.

Smith made no mistake, pushing one past Eskymo goaltender Cully Hayes, giving St. Edward a 1-0 lead at the 5:17 mark. The next part of the period was a parade to the penalty box as the Eskymos went shorthanded three times, but the penalty killers did their jobs and kept it 1-0.

Then, late in the period, the Eskymos were afforded a power play chance, and they cashed in when Graham Johnson set up Carson Hughes for the tying goal entering the intermission. Just before the break, however, the Eagles took another penalty, and Escanaba had a power play chance that carried over into the third period.

Just as they did Friday night in a similar carry-over situation against Tri-Valley, the Eskymos scored on this chance (albeit five seconds after the power play expired). Graham Johnson ripped one from just inside the blue line that cleanly beat King, and the Eskymos had a 2-1 lead.

They had plenty of chances to expand on that lead, notably Johnson, who went in on a breakaway only to be stopped by King. King also stopped Owen Labonte on a breakaway and fended off two on-man rushes against him.

The Eskymos killed off a late Eagles power play, and in the final two minutes, St. Edward pulled the goalie for an extra attacker. And they worked the puck from the corner to the front of the net, and Smith cashed in for his second goal of the game, tying it at 2-2 with 50.5 seconds to play.

That sent the game into an automatic overtime shootout, where each team got five shooters.

The Eskymos took the lead in the shootout on a goal by Nolan Bink on the team's second shot.

St. Edward tied the shootout with another goal from Smith, on the team's third shot.

Both King and Hayes stopped the next fourth shooter, sending it to the final round. King stopped Ben Sands on the potential game-winner, and then St. Edward won the game on the shoothout goal by Leo DeAngelo. A wild celebration ensued, as the Eagles earned a dramatic and improbable victory.

“I've worked on it before, we won a shootout against another team from Cleveland,” King said. “I do my job and save everything I can, and hope someone scores. My girlftriend says that I don't look nervous at all, but I was pretty shaky. This long trip, six, eight hours on a bus, was great bonding. It was a lot of fun being with the boys.”

And the Eagles will do it again in a couple of weeks, taking an even longer trek to Sault Ste. Marie, to compete in a showcase hosted by the Sault High Blue Devils.

For the Eskymos, Coach Johnson was keeping it in perspective.

“Tri-Valley (Friday night) wy as a warm-up game for us,” he said. “St. Edward was a step up. Now, we step up again to play Mona and Christian (Muskegon Mona Shores and Grand Rapids Christian) next weekend. And that will get us ready for the biggest games in Eskymo hockey history (against Division One ranked Hartland and Clarkston in Traverse City). These are the kind of games are boys want to play, and ones I believe we can compete in.”