MARQUETTE — Variety is the spice of life and the Marquette Senior High School hockey team had two very different games when the Redmen traveled downstate over the weekend.

But MSHS came out on top of both to improve to 4-2 this season.

Marquette opened the trip in Saginaw and needed several comebacks and overtime to defeat Saginaw Heritage 3-2, then went the short distance to Midland the next day to blitz Midland Dow 9-0 in a game called after two periods.

The Redmen get back on their home ice at Lakeview Arena for a trio of games this week.

MSHS hosts Calumet at 6:30 p.m. today, then entertains the Bay Reps from the greater Traverse City area at 7 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday.

Here is a roundup of the Redmen’s trip downstate:

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Marquette 3, Saginaw Heritage 2 (OT)

On Friday at the Saginaw-Bay Ice Arena, MSHS head coach Doug Garrow was impressed with the crowd along with his team’s comeback.

“It was a great atmosphere … with a very vocal student section and they were treated to one of the most exciting high school hockey games in recent memory,” Garrow said.

After a scoreless first period, the host Hawks got on the board first when Owen Turner scored with 4:27 gone in the second.

The Redmen’s Connor Stade answered with an unassisted goal about five minutes later to knot it 1-1, but Heritage retook the lead less than two minutes after that on a power play goal by Brett Wobio.

The Hawks’ 2-1 lead held up for just over seven minutes of the third period as MSHS’ Jacob Garrow retied it 2-2 with 9:48 left as assists went to Nash Riipi and Colin Nemacheck.

“We battled through penalties and injuries and came back … to tie it up in the third,” Coach Garrow said.

In the overtime, though, things started going sideways for Marquette.

“In the OT period, we went down two men with one of those penalties being a five-minute major,” Doug Garrow said. “We killed off a majority of the major and received another penalty for tripping.

“With 4:04 remaining, Tucker Welch ended the game on a short-handed breakaway.

“It was a great team win that hopefully we can carry the momentum of this win over the next few weeks.”

Welch’s game-winner was unassisted and made a winner of Marquette goalie Cole Kelly, who stopped 21 shots, including two in OT.

MSHS put 35 shots on Heritage goalie Teague Workman, including four in the extra period.

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Marquette 9, Midland Dow 0

On Saturday in Midland, the Chargers are struggling despite having won an MHSAA state championship last spring.

“Rebuilding Midland Dow lost 14 seniors from last year’s (Division) 3 state championship team and we took advantage of their youth and inexperience,” Coach Garrow said.

Riipi, Jake Garrow and Stade accounted for six goals and 12 points between them.

Riipi had his hat trick before Marquette’s six-goal first period ended; Garrow finished with two goals and six points, including four points in the opening period; and Stade had a first-period goal before adding a pair of assists in the second period.

MSHS had a pair of three-goal flurries in the opening period — the first three were scored in a stretch of 2:27 in the middle of the period, but the last three only needed 20 seconds to go in during the last two minutes.

In that last stretch, Garrow scored with 1:58 left, then Riipi bagged one with 1:43 to go, and finally Caleb Fries got his first with 1:38 remaining.

The Redmen had one more three-goal streak in them, scoring their final trio in a 90-second stretch in the middle of the second.

In addition to Riipi, Garrow and Stade, CJ Carter netted two assists, Fries had two goals, Joe DeMattia a goal and Nemacheck and Welch each one assist.

Marquette peppered Dow goalie Ethan Jordan with 29 shots in the two periods while Redmen goalie Parker Nevenhoven only faced four shots.

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