The Marquette Senior HIgh School junior varsity hockey team won the playoff championship of the Great Lakes JV Hockey League on Feb. 26 after finishing the regular season with a perfect 12-0 league mark and overall coming in at 18-6. Celebrating with the trophy are, front row from left, Soren Higgins and Braden Golisek. Middle row from left, Brent Kroll, Sterling Wright, Cam Kallio, Cross Lakenen, Carter Peterson and Ryan Houle. Top row from left, Tim Muladore, Ryan Baldwin, Rory O'Connor, Gaetano Cammarata, Ted Hoenke, Ethan Hayes, Kyle Pascoe, Karsten Kamps and Alex Gadzinski. Not pictured are Jaden Lessard, head coach Brian Nebel, assistant coach Phil Johnson and Jim Higgins. (Submitted photo)

HANCOCK — The Marquette Senior High School junior varsity hockey team swept both regular-season and playoff titles in the Great Lakes Junior Varsity Hockey League.

The Redmen compiled 18-6 overall and perfect 12-0 GLJVHL records during the regular season, then defeated No. 4 seeded Hancock 7-2 on Feb. 25 and No. 2 Houghton 3-2 on Feb. 26 at the Houghton County Arena in Hancock to capture the playoff crown.

The fourth team in the tourney was No. 3 Escanaba.

In the first playoff game, Hancock actually grabbed 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the first period as the Bulldogs’ Ryan Ruoho on a power play and Trevor Rowe at even strength got HCHS on the board.

Gaetano Cammarata kept Marquette close, scoring a shorthanded tally between those two, then tied the game just 22 seconds after Hancock went up 2-1.

Teammate Sterling Wright scored his 14th goal of the season and what proved to be the game winner with 1:49 left in the opening period.

It was all Redmen after that. Brent Kroll tacked on his 15th and 16th tallies of the season in the second to make it 5-2, then Cammarata completed his hat trick with his 22nd goal of the year and Ryan Baldwin got his second of the season to round out the scoring in the third.

Nine MSHS players picked up assists, led by Baldwin with three, while Wright and Ted Hoenke had two apiece. Single helpers were credited to Cammarata, Kroll, Carter Peterson, Ethan Hayes, Cross Lakenen and Kyle Pascoe.

Marquette’s Soren Higgins stopped 22 shots, while Hancock’s Phillip Ross had 32. The Redmen outshot the Bulldogs in each of the three periods.

Marquette had to pull off another comeback victory against Houghton, but in this game, the Redmen didn’t take their first lead until 26 seconds were left.

Kroll scored the game winner on a power play, getting assists from Alex Gadzinski and Rory O’Connor.

Houghton led for more than a full period’s worth of game time even though MSHS held a 34-17 shots advantage, including 17-4 in the third.

Brad Gauthier put the Gremlins on the board with 6:56 left in the opening period, a goal that stood up until Marquette’s Ryan Houle tied it with 9:01 left in the second. Kroll and Baldwin assisted.

Houghton retook a 2-1 lead with 11:36 left in the third on another Gauthier goal, but O’Connor answered with a power-play marker 5:23 later, assists going to Kroll and Hayes.

Braden Golisek stopped 16 shots in the Marquette net, while Luke Docket had 31 for the Gremlins.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.