Click the thumbnails to see photos taken both nights by Lizzie Taylor, and her videos from Saturday's game. Also click to hear post-game comments from the Houghton win by Coach Andy Johnson, and three stars Graham Johnson, Gunnar LaMarche, and Owen LaBonte.
WELLS---The Escanaba High School hockey team won both of its home games this weekend, stretching its winning streak to four games heading toward the end of the 2025 portion of the schedule.
The Eskymos beat the Houghton Gremlins, 6-2, Saturday night, after shutting down the Negaunee Miners, 7-0, on Friday.
The Eskymos, ranked eighth in the state in Division Three, improved to 7-3-0 on the season. Houghton, ranked fourth in the state in D-3, fell to 4-5-1.
“The boys really wanted this,” Escanaba Hockey Coach Andy Johnson said. “I can't remember the last time we beat Houghton. We were talking last night in between the first and second period of the Negaunee game, a little gut check talk, about what this team can do if we play three periods of hockey. It showed today what this team can do if we just come out and work hard.”
The Eskymos took a quick 3-0 lead over Houghton in the first six minutes of the game and the Gremlins were never able to mount a real challenge, despite outshooting the Eskymos, 29-26. Cully Hayes stopped 27 of those shots for the win.
Graham Johnson continued his torrid scoring pace with two more goals, including one on a breakaway just over one minute into the game. In ten games this season, Johnson has scored 19 goals and added ten assists for 29 points...nearly three points per game.
“We've been doing a great job playing as a team,”the senior tri-captain said. “It's been awesome. Everyone's been working hard. We've been playing our systems pretty good, expect for a period here and there. Tonight, we strung three periods together. And we looked good out there tonight.”
He started the scoring with a breakaway goal that set the tone for the rest of the night.
“We saw their third line was out there,” said Graham Johnson, who was picked the game's first star again. “So, we (his top line) went out there and it was D-Zone faceoff. We had a faceoff play on, and we won the puck, and I just kind of went wide on the breakway, and going wide has kind of been our gameplan here. I just drove wide and went backhand.”
Not two minutes later, freshman Chase Korpi found the back of the net, and then three minutes after that, Johnson went top shelf from the faceoff dot for a 3-0 Eskymo lead.
In the second period, the Eskymos scored three more goals to put the game away. Senior defenseman Owen LaBonte ripped a shot from between the circles that beat Houghton goaltender Brycyn Nettell cleanly. LaBonte says the boys were tired of losing to the Gremlins, noting a state quarterfinal loss in 2023 that ended on the mercy rule.
“I remember that, and we played the first game of the (regular) season against them, too, and it was pretty much the same thing,” said LaBonte, the game's third star. “It feels good to just get a big team win, and have some momentum going into some more big games. We played good defense tonight.”
And his goal?
“I was kind of in the neutral zone, and I was holding the line,” LaBonte said. “I saw the puck sitting there, and I was going to just get a shot from the point. But, I saw I had some space, so I walked down, and just put it in the right side of the net. I was excited.”
Not as excited, though, as sophomore Gunnar LaMarche scored his first goal of the season to make it 5-0. He pushed it passed Nettell after hitting the goalpost on a pair of great scoring chances in a recent win over Hancock.
“I finally got one in tonight,” LaMarche said. “Carson (Hughes) and I were skating up, and he shot it from like the goal line. It came out, and I just finished it. I haven't scored this year, and only once last year, so it felt good.”
LaMarche was named the game's second star, and the team picked him for the hard hat.
“We've been talking about it the last few weeks, winning, even the short ten-foot races to pucks,” Coach Johnson said. “We were like, 'Guns, you've gotta go hard, gotta get there quick, and be ready for it, when there's that ten-foot race, you've got to be that guy. He's been working on it. We saw that last night, and tonight, he just took it to a new level.”
Escanaba's final goal came from freshman Hank Sholten, who was set up by Nolan Bink on the power-play for a back-door goal to make it a 6-0 game.
There were still 25 minutes to play, nearly half the game, but the Eskymos were disciplined and played keep-away with a dump-and-chase style. Houghton got a goal from freshman Liam Frick in the second period, and a late goal from Connor Arko.
On Friday, the Eskymos started slow but finished strong in a 7-0 win over the Negaunee Miners. Graham Johnson scored another hat trick and added an assist, and Carson Hughes scored twice. The game was notable because it ended one of the longest streaks in Michigan High School hockey history.
Cully Hayes had played in the Eskymo goal for every single minute of every single game, a remarkable streak that was needed because the Eskymos did not have another goaltender, and because Hayes is considered one of the top goalies in the state.
But Friday night, for the first time since the spring of the 2021-'22 season, someone else was in net. Sophomore Mason Couch stopped all twelve Negaunee shots he faced to earn the shutout in his varsity debut.
Negaunee fell to 4-6-0 on the season as goaltender Kurt O'Brien stopped 31 shots. The Miners were oustshot, 38-12, in the contest.
All in all, a great weekend for the Eskymos, getting them the trifecta of wins over Copper Country teams for the first time in years: Houghton, Hancock, and Calumet. And they'll have a chance to avenge a loss to Painesdale-Jeffers in early Feburary.
Next up for the Eskymos: a rivalry battle next Thursday night against the Marquette Sentinels. The Sentinels are 7-3-2 on the season after destroying Lake Orion twice this weekend. They are ranked fifth in the state in Division Three, ahead of the Eskymos in the eighth spot (and Painesdale-Jeffers at #7).
“We have three days of practice here and play them on Thursday night,” Coach Johnson said. “We'll be ready. We have a few things to work on in practice. Just little face-off work and maybe a little power play work. Other than that, we just need to keep playing the way that we did these last few games. We'll give Marquette a little run.”
Thursday's game starts at 7:00 and it will be broadcast live on FM-93.5, AM-600, and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.
