The Marquette Redmen contended with a tough-as-nails Calumet team in the last regular game of the season.
An early Calumet goal by Rylan Anderson gave the Copper Kings a 1-0 lead over Marquette to start things off.
The Redmen held off the Copper Kings for most of the period. Tyler Bergwall protected the net well against a storm of Calumet attempts.
The Copper Kings were gifted a power play with only two minutes left in the period. With just three seconds remaining, Calumet found the back of the net to improve to 2-0 going into the second period.
Another early goal, this time from Copper King Sam Erkkila, found the back of the net to give Calumet a 3-0 lead.
Calumet followed up quickly with another goal for a 4-0 lead. There was a changing of the guards for the Redmen as goalie Tyler Bergwall passed the baton to Brennen Hakkola.
The Copper Kings found the back of the net once more, however, and the lead jumped to 5-0.
Ryan Baldwin had something to say about the Copper Kings dominance early in the second period. Baldwin found the back of the net to give Marquette a much-needed boost and a score of 5-1.
The Copper Kings answered though, and Calumet again pulled off a late goal on a power play to improve to 6-1 just before the buzzer.
The Redmen were able to keep the Copper Kings at bay in the first half of the final period. Hakkola worked hard, protecting the goal against some quality attempts from Calumet.
The Kings proved dangerous on the power play the entire evening. They scored their last goal of the game four seconds into a power play and seven minutes left to go in the period to improve to 7-1 over the Redmen.
The Copper Kings would take home the victory, but Marquette put up a better fight than the scoreboard showed. The Redmen finish the regular season with an 18-5-2 record.
The Redmen will be back on the ice on Tuesday, February 26th against Kingsford on 103 FXD. Tune in to the pregame show at 5:30 pm, the puck drops at 6:00 pm.
Listen to a recording of the live broadcast.
Photos by Amy Luke.
