Click the thumbnails to see video replays of all six Escanaba goals. Click the AUDIO buttons to hear post-game comments from Nolan Bink, Owen LaBonte, Hunter Allen, and Eskymo Coach Andy Johnson.
TRENTON---The Escanaba High School hockey team picked up a signature victory on the big stage Friday night.
The Eskymos knocked off the top-ranked (Division Three) Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Cranes, 6-2, at the MIHL Showcase in the Detroit suburb of Trenton.
The win came at an event where several thousand people from the best Michigan high school hockey teams competed on three different rinks at the Kennedy Recreation Center, with games going from 7:30 in the morning until well after 10:00 at night.
“This ranks up there with one of our biggest wins in (program) history,” Eskymo Coach Andy Johnson said. “There were a ton of people watching our game, and the thing was, like, going into the rink today, people were like, 'who do you have today' and we'd say 'Cranbrook' and they'd be like, oooo. Like, everybody, 'oooo'. So, it feels good to just go out and play a complete game, come out with the win.”
Trailing 1-0 after the first period, the Eskymos scored twice early in the second period, with senior captain Nolan Bink scoring at the 1:20 mark, and then tallying again five minutes later to put Escanaba in front, 2-1.
“I was coming through the neutral zone and Hunter passed it, and I went down and picked a spot,” Bink said. “The second one, Brody (Levesque) made a nice play and I got around the guy and threw it in. It feels really good to go out there and everybody, from top to bottom in the lineup, is just playing hard and playing well in the defensive zone. That's what makes it good.”
“Owen got the puck out on that,” Allen said. “I heard Nolan behind me, so I moved it over, and just crashing the net. Nolan made a great move and he scored. Not much to it!”
“After the first period, we really didn't want to change anything,” Johnson said. “We knew the first goal that they had on us was kind of a fluke, nothing we were doing wrong. We were playing fast, and working our game plan, trying to get pucks to the weak side coming out of the D zone. We just wanted to get pucks deep and play really fast. Nolan's first goal was huge, and a big uplifting moment for us.”
The biggest goal, perhaps, came with three seconds left in the second period when Nick Martinson beat goaltender Blake Tice to give Escanaba a 3-1 lead heading into the intermission break.
“Nick's been doing the right things,” Johnson said. “He's been working hard, being good on the forecheck. It was really nice to see him get his first goal in a while, in a big game like this.”
In the third period, Graham Johnson made a nice pass to Ben Sands, and Sands made no mistake, as he ripped it into the net to make it a 4-1 Eskymo lead.
Cranbrook (12-6-0 overall) got a goal from Reston Cicco with 4:03 left to close to within 4-2, and the Cranes pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker. The Eskymos put the game away after Johnson won a defensive zone faceoff and Owen LaBonte smacked it 200 feet down the ice for an empty net goal to put the game away.
“Graham won that draw, and I had a lane, so I just ripped it,” LaBonte said. “I got lucky and it went in. It was the right time to let one rip. But maybe not if it was a closer game.”
LaBonte got the icing on the cake at the very end with a power play goal, making it a 6-2 final.
“We were working it around on the power play and the guy was kind of boxing me out.” LaBonte said, “I spun off of him and Graham let one rip from the point and I got a stick on it. Every day when we practice power play, there's a couple that I get in front of the net like that and the practice paid off today.”
Cully Hayes was solid in the Eskymo net again, especially in the first period, when the Cranes fired eleven shots at him. He ended up with 28 saves on 30 shots.
Besides Bink and LaBonte with two goals apiece, Graham Johnson had four assists, bringing his point total to 62 (40 goals, 22 assists) on the season. Sands and LaBonte now each have eleven goals
The Eskymos improved to 16-7-0 on the season, and will face another top team, the top-ranked (Division One and Overall-All Divisions) Howell Highlanders, Saturday afternoon at 12:30. Howell is 20-1-0 on the season with plenty of college-level talent.
But Johnson and the boys say they're not intimidated.
And Johnson says they learned their lesson from the Traverse City Showcase, when the Eskymos used up all of their energy in an emotional late-night 7-5 loss to third-ranked (Division One) Hartland. Escanaba was mercied by top-ranked (Division Two) Flint Powers Catholic the next afternoon.
“We got a good dinner, and we're not going to be up late like we were in TC,” Johnson said. “Howell is up late tonight because they had a late day, and they have to get up and travel back in the morning (an hour). We're doing all the right things this time.”
“It feels good,” Allen said. “But all that's on my mind is tomorrow's game. To go out there and beat (another) number one team in the state.”
“If the boys can bring the same energy that they did today, I think we'll be buzzing,” LaBonte said. “I think we've got some left. It's a lot better situation this time, so we should be good to go.”
