Marquette goaltender Cole Kelly, left, readies for a shot with Redman defenseman Joe DeMattia nearby during their high school hockey game against Houghton on Thursday at Dee Stadium in Houghton. (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette photo by Daver Karnosky)

HOUGHTON — Marquette Redmen hockey coach Doug Garrow has one philosophy for his team.

Playing your best hockey late in February, because that is when games matter the most.

On Thursday night, Garrow’s Redmen, ranked fourth in the state in Division 2, came into Houghton’s Dee Stadium looking to ruin the Gremlins’ Senior Night and they did in stunning fashion, winning 4-3.

With the win, the Redmen (17-6-2) claimed a share of the Great Lakes Hockey Conference title.

“Beginning of the year, I wasn’t sure what we had,” Garrow said. “We had such a good team last year. We lost so many good quality players, but this team has really just come together, played hard all year.

“We play the right way. We block shots. We do the little things. We defend really well.

“We’re not a high-scoring team, but we have good goaltending, solid defense and forwards that are willing to do the little things right.”

Garrow stressed the importance of a fast start and his team did that, scoring twice in the game’s first nine minutes.

Nash Riipi was a key part of that start, scoring the game’s first goal on a power play at 5:57 and assisting on Caleb Fries’ tally exactly 2 1/2 minutes later at 8:27.

“I told the guys I think we’re as good as Houghton,” Garrow said. “I think offensively they’re much better than us, but I think we defend, and I think our strength is different from their strengths.

“Tonight, we just were lucky enough to kind of take advantage of (their) Senior Night, because they kind of came out a little flat early and we jumped on the lead.”

The two-goal lead became four in the first 6 1/2 minutes of the second period as Ethan Phillips beat Gremlins goaltender Bryant Lee with a shot from the left circle 4:09 in, then Jacob Garrow took advantage of a turnover created by Riipi, skated in alone on a shorthanded breakaway and buried a backhand deke at 6:24.

Houghton (23-2), the second-ranked Division 3 team in the state, did not panic when down 2-0 or 3-0, but at the same time, much to the chagrin of coach Corey Markham, his Gremlins did not really show the type of intensity needed to bounce back until after Jacob Garrow’s shorthanded tally.

The Gremlins have struggled with starts of late, and while Markham addressed that after a game against Calumet on Tuesday, he feels his team still has some searching to do before the MHSAA Division 3 regional tournament begins Thursday.

“I didn’t feel that we had the energy and the jump like we normally have, again,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s Senior Night or what the reason is. We have to figure that out just a bit now where we are not having strong starts that we need to do.

“That part was disappointing. I just didn’t feel the energy that we should have.”

However, it is tough to keep the highest scoring team in the U.P. off the board for a full game, and once the Gremlins got one, the game turned in their favor.

On their second power play of the middle period, co-captain Camden Markham found time and space. He turned a pass from alternate captain Sully Rajala into a goal at 11:10. The goal was Markham’s 77th point of the season, passing Connor Hannon for the most points in a season in school history.

With Riipi off for slashing, Houghton struck again as sophomore winger Jace DeForge took a pass from junior defenseman Connor Raffaelli and beat Redmen goaltender Cole Kelly with a wrist shot at 15:37.

“I just didn’t feel the energy that we should have,” Corey Markham said. “Really, I didn’t feel like we were on our toes and on the edge until we finally got the first goal.

“Then, from that point on, we were playing with purpose, finishing checks and being strong. I just thought the whole game was so much better at that point on.”

The Gremlins kept pushing and pushing, and eventually were rewarded again 8:29 into the third period when sophomore defenseman Hudson Markham fired a shot from the right point through traffic that found its way past Kelly.

From there, the Redmen blocked as many shots as they could, closing defenders around Kelly. While his team couldn’t find the equalizer, the Houghton coach was pleased his team fought with a playoff-type intensity in the air.

“They did a tremendous job of blocking shots,” Corey Markham said. “(Marquette is) well coached in their positioning, and they blocked a ton of shots. They were tough in front of the net. That was like a playoff-type game, it was really good for us.”

Doug Garrow felt his team didn’t react well at first to giving up a pair of goals before the end of the second period, but was happier with how his group defended in the third.

“We just kind of hung on once they pushed and got a couple of goals,” the MSHS mentor said. “I think we started to play on our heels a little bit. They really took advantage of us. If there was another five minutes or two minutes in that game, it might have been tied.

“We just held on and I give a lot of credit, obviously, (to) our goaltender. Cole Kelly played a hell of a game. Our defensemen, I think, defended really well and didn’t give them a lot of time and space to do what they wanted, because they can really hurt you.”

Kelly finished with 28 saves for his ninth win of the season, while Lee had 16 stops.

Marquette is off until Friday, when the Redmen face Manistique in the opening game of their Division 2 regional at 6 p.m. at Northern Lights Arena in Alpena.