MARQUETTE — Marquette Jr Wildcats Peewee AA competed in the State Championship playoffs April 23-25 in Port Huron and came out on top with the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association State Championship Title.

According to a release from the team, the first game of the series was April 23 against Traverse City. Seth Sandstrom put the first goal in for the Junior Wildcats with assists from Jack Pond and Brody Lemire. Joseph Provost and Brody Sheldon would each add a goal to the scoreboard and another two from Kyle Moyer. Marquette came out on top with a 5-2 win.

Game 2 on April 24 would be against the Trenton Blades. Sheldon and Moyer would put in the first two goals of the game.

Trenton would respond with a booming come back over the next two periods with three goals pulling ahead of Marquette 3-2. It was a back and forth battle and with 3 minutes left on the clock, Sandstrom would put in a rebound goal off Moyer’s shot to tie up the game. End score was 3-3.

Game 3 on April 24 was against the Kalamazoo K Wings. Kalamazoo, which was 2-0 for the weekend, wanted the win for the #1 seed in the playoff bracket and came at Marquette hard, according to the press release. It was a back and forth game from start to finish. Kalamazoo put in the first goal and Marquette scraped up all they had to stay in the game. In the third period Trey Savola and Pond crashed the net and put the puck past the goalie to tie up the game. Game would finish with a 1-1 tie.

Marquette earned their place in the semifinal spot Sunday morning and would face the #1 seed Oakland Grizzlies.

Caleb Aho put the first goal in for Marquette with a back door pass from Sandstrom. Braydon Odovero had a touch of the puck for an assist on that goal also. Grizzlies would tie it up later in the second period. Wildcats would respond later in the game with a breakaway goal by Sheldon.

Goalie Cully Hayes would stand out by saving multiple shots on net keeping Marquette in the game. Game ended in a 2-1 victory over the Grizzlies.

The final game was against the Kensington Valley Rebels. Sandstrom would pick up the puck on the far blue line and move around Kensington to put the first goal in of the game, a beauty of a snipe from the top of the circle. The Rebels would score later to tie it up. Savola would be on the receiving end of a break out pass from goalie Hayes and Sandstrom sending him and the puck for a breakaway goal in the second period.

In the final period of the championship game, with only 3 minutes left, Sheldon would score a backhanded goal to give Marquette the cushion they were looking for and Marquette would go on to claim the state title.

The final score was 3-1.

Superior Hockey’s head coach is Jason Sandstrom with assistants Jeff Provost, Nathan Aho, Kevin Moyer and Jason Lemire.

The team’s release states: “Big thanks to Superior Hockey for their sponsorship.”