Hancock forward Kirby Storm prepares to shoot the puck during the first period of a game against Jeffers Tuesday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)
HOUGHTON — The Hancock Bulldogs have been working towards this all season. Tuesday night, the things they practice came to fruition in a 5-4 win over the Jeffers Jets at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Hancock scored four power play goals en route to the win.
“Oh, my God, this is a big-time win right now,” said Bulldogs coach Joe Burcar. “That’s a team that got to the Final Four last year. They’re first in the conference right now.
“A great opponent, but this is our third time playing them. They beat us the first two. So, there’s a lot of great things that we did tonight and it’s a confidence builder.”
The game was tied at 2-2 at the start of the third period. Sophomore forward Connor Helminen changed that just 55 seconds in when his backhand from the slot slid past Jeffers co-captain Kasen Helminen’s left leg.
“We’ve been in this situation so many times as a young team,” Burcar said. “We’ve been tied, or we’ve been ahead by one or down by one. But, it’s been tight going into the third. What we see from a coaching staff is just that, we’ve been building. We’ve been building. We’ve been building.
“Was nice to see the goal early, because I think the stuff we’ve been working on, and they’ve been executing in games, it paid off. I think that was just a major boost not only to Connor scoring, but the bench was up and excited. So, it’s a reward. What we talk about, what we work on as a group, and execution. It went well tonight.”
Jets coach Aaron Helminen lamented the way his team played throughout the game.
“We didn’t have the jump in our step,” he said. “We seemed like we really fought ourselves, fought the puck all night. Then, of course, laziness results in penalties, and laziness on the penalty kill results in goals.”
The Bulldogs (10-6-2 overall) already had two power play goals in the game before the third period, so when junior forward Hudsen Heinonen was whistled for a major penalty, they had a chance to add to that total.
It took less than a minute for the Bulldogs to strike. Alternate captain Kirby Storm scored on a wrist shot from the slot over Kasen Helminen’s glove at 6:24. Then, 2:04 later, he scored a second goal from a very similar spot.
Storm’s ninth goal of the season put the Bulldogs up 5-2 at that point.
“He’s definitely got a nose for the puck, and we put him in every key situation,” said Burcar. “He plays heavy minutes for us. He’s one of our leaders. He’s a senior. He’s a captain. Not that you want to say you expect that from him, but he’s a guy that, from a coaching standpoint, getting to know him this year as a first year coach with him, he can do a lot of good things.
“He does a lot of great things for us. It’s another moment where, from a coaching standpoint, we’re really happy to see him be rewarded. That’s probably where a lot of those situations happen tonight, where the team was rewarded by one.”
As good as things felt for the Bulldogs at that point, however, the Jets had other plans.
Alternate captain Blake Heltunen found the net from the right point at 11:16 to cut the lead to 5-3. The goal was his fifth of the season.
Then, sophomore forward Max Nordstrom buried a rebound for his second goal of the night, and 13th of the year, from the left circle. He got the puck from a rebound off a shot from senior defenseman Griffin Heinonen.
Down 5-4, the Jets poured on the pressure, getting multiple good scoring chances. They pulled Kasen Helminen with 92 seconds remaining, and kept the pressure on, but could not find the equalizer.
“It just didn’t happen,” said Aaron Helminen. “We just got down too many, and just not enough at the end. Credit Adam (Mikkola) in net, (he) played really well. We had a hard time getting them by him tonight. They packed it in nice at the end and got themselves a win.”
Mikkola finished the night with 28 saves to earn the win, but the ones in the final minutes were the biggest.
“He absolutely (shut the door),” Burcar said. “Credit to Jeffers, they’re a high-scoring offensive team. From a coaching standpoint, we kept on looking at the clock, and it’s 5-2, and all of a sudden, it’s 5-4, and there’s still a lot of time on the clock yet against an offensive team like that.
“But, that was good for Adam, another senior. He’s had some challenging games, but he really, really answered the bell tonight. He changed his game tonight. He shut it down.”
The Jets (15-6-1) got on the board first when Nordstrom scored his first goal of the night while his team was on the power play at 16:45. Co-captain Brogan Turner got the initial shot off before Nordstrom knocked the rebound home.
In the second period, the Bulldogs earned a two-man advantage when Turner and sophomore defenseman Reese Laitala were whistled 1:27 apart for hooking and tripping, respectively.
Junior forward Brady Axford struck first during the ensuing 5-on-3 when he tipped a shot from sophomore defenseman Jax Pierner into the net at 5:34. The goal was Axford’s 11th of the season.
Then sophomore forward Nolan Hanner beat Kasen Helminen on the one-man advantage at 6:13 with a backhand. The goal was Hanner’s eighth of the season.
Turner evened the game at 2-2 when he batted a rebound past Mikkola at 8:50.
Kasen Helminen made 15 saves in the loss for the Jets.
Up next
The Jets are back in action Friday when they host Grandville at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena at 7 p.m. The Bulldogs will face Calumet Saturday at 1 p.m. at the HoCo Arena.
Jeffers forward Max Nordstrom (left), celebrates a power play goal with teammates Blake Heltunen (5), Easton Therrian, and Brogan Turner (9) during the first period of a game against Hancock Tuesday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)