Marquette Dominates Escanaba To Take Regional
Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and hear player spotlight interviews with Captain Nick Kolich and Ast. Captain Spencer Bourdeau.
MARQUETTE---The Marquette Redmen got two goals apiece from three different players and beat the Escanaba Eskymos, 6-1, to win the MHSAA Division Two Regional Chamopionship Saturday at Lakeview Arena.
Freshman Jackson Potulny followed up his four-goal performance two nights earlier against Negaunee by scoring two more against Escanaba on Saturday.
Jack Sides and Dylan Baldwin also scored a pair of goals apiece for the Redmen.
The game was scoreless late in the first period before Marquette scored twice in the final three minutes of the period to take a 2-0 lead.
Escanaba got on the board in the second period when captain Nick Kolich redirected a Clayton Smith shot from along the right post to make it a 2-1 game.
But the Redmen scored two more goals in the period and then put the game away with two more in the third period. Escanaba's best scoring chance, other than Kolich's goal, came early in the third period when Sawyer LaMarch cut acroxs the goal mouth and tried to get goaltender Brennan Hakkola to bite. Hakkola, however, made a pad save.
Escanaba goaltender Dylan Ziemke had another strong outing in net. After making 42 saves in a 2-0 loss to the Redmen nearly a month ago, he made 39 saves Saturday on 44 shots.
Hakkola made 16 saves on 17 shots for Marquette, which beat Escanaba for the fourth time this season. The result broke Escanaba's eight-game winning streak and the Eskymos finished their season with a 9-10-0 overall record.
Marquette (13-4-0) advances to the state quarterfinals on Tuesday in Gaylord against Traverse City Central. The Trojans beat Petoskey to win their regional on Saturday, 4-3.
