Marquette defenseman Aydin Frost, right, controls the puck during the first period of a high school hockey game against Hancock on Tuesday at the Houghton County Arena in Hancock. (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette photo by Daver Karnosky)

HANCOCK — Looking for a response after a disappointing Wing Ding loss to rival Houghton, the No. 1-ranked Hancock Bulldogs got just that with a 5-2 win over Marquette on Tuesday night at the Houghton County Arena.

With the win, the Bulldogs clinched the Great Lakes Hockey Conference regular season title.

Hancock exploded out of the gates and put a lot of pressure on the ninth-ranked Redmen defensively.

It’s what Bulldogs coach Dan Rouleau expected from his team, especially with the Redmen missing forward Joe Phillips and having just finished a three-game stretch in less than 72 hours at the Michigan Public Schools Hockey Showcase downstate that ended Saturday morning.

“We needed a good start,” Rouleau said. “We got a good start … a good start and a good finish.”

Just 1:16 into the game, HCHS defenseman Teddy Perrault found a soft spot in the Redmen defense and waited for a pass from center Colton Salani, who had just picked up his own rebound. Perrault was fed the puck quickly, then roofed a wrist shot over MSHS goaltender Tyler Bergwall’s right shoulder.

The Bulldogs (17-6) struck again just under a minute and a half later when winger Petr Anderson found Alex Nordstrom behind the Redmen net. Nordstrom fed it quickly to winger Austin Salani, who buried a one-timer at 2:42.

It was just the start the Bulldogs were looking for.

“When you come off a loss like that, a devastating loss, you want to jump right back on the horse right away and get a good start,” Rouleau said about their loss to the Gremlins. “We certainly did.”

Hancock made it 3-0 with a power-play goal just 42 seconds into the second period when Nordstrom took a lead pass from Teddy Randell, deked to his backhand and beat Bergwall cleanly.

From that point forward, the second period slowed down due to penalties.

The Redmen (11-9-2) took advantage of a 5-on-3 situation and another delayed penalty. Winger Tanner Phillips moved the puck out to the right point where winger Sterling Wright beat Hancock goalie Dawson Kero over the blocker at 6:10.

The Redmen got another power play goal 6:26 into the third when winger Sean O’Connor knocked a rebound past Kero just before the net was dislodged.

“We spotted them two goals,” Redmen coach Doug Garrow said. “We battled back after we started to play a little physical.”

The Bulldogs had to kill off another penalty on the heels of the second Redmen goal. They bore down, survived the penalty, and within four minutes they struck twice in 47 seconds to put the game out of reach.

The first came off the stick of Anderson, who one-timed a pass from Nordstrom past Bergwall at 10:02. Then defenseman Tyler Turcotte found the back of the net at 10:49.