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MARQUETTE — Two of three teams from Marquette Junior Hockey participating in district youth hockey tournaments over the weekend have advanced to the state finals to be held in March.

Lakeview Arena hosted Michigan Amateur Hockey Association district tourneys at the Squirt AA 10-and-under level, along with Pee Wee AA 12-under and Bantam AA 14-under. These were essentially Upper Peninsula finals events.

Marquette, Houghton-Hancock and Calumet each entered a team in the tournaments, with the winner advancing to states, which will include eight teams at each.

Marquette goalie Parker Nevenhoven, center, makes a save on a shot by a Portage Lake player with Marquette skater Brody Sheldon converging on the play during a Michigan Amateur Hockey Association Bantam AA/14-under district tournament held at Lakeview Arena on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022, in Marquette. (Randy Ritari photo)

In one case, Bantam AA, two U.P. teams actually got to advance as the Houghton-Hancock Portage Lake association is hosting the state tourney and gets an automatic berth as the host, according to the Marquette Bantams head coach Jon Nebel.

The Marquette Junior Wildcats, in the case of Bantams sponsored by the American Legion Post 44, won both games and earned its district title.

The same thing happened for the RMS Wildcats in Squirt AA, where the Marquette team won both games to continue on.

The Pee Wee AA Superior Hockey Wildcats came up just short of making it a sweep as Portage Lake advanced with a 1-0 victory on Sunday in their tourney finale.

Here are more details on each division as provided by Nebel and the other Marquette coaches:

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Squirt AA — 10U

Marquette on Friday and Portage Lake on Saturday each won their opening games with shutouts over Calumet, setting up the decisive game Sunday against each other.

The RMS Junior Wildcats came out on top with a 6-3 win as Marquette’s Asher Sandstrom had his second hat trick of the weekend and Hannah Ayotte earned the victory in net.

“Our team played a great weekend of hockey and defensively we gave up very few scoring chances,” RMS head coach Adam Carpenter said. “The coaching staff is very proud of our entire team.

“We look forward to attending the state tournament and hope to make a deep run.”

In earlier action, Marquette downed the Calumet Junior Kings 7-0 on Friday as Sandstrom was joined by teammate Mason Mills as both had hat tricks. Liam Wentz earned the goaltending shutout.

On Saturday, the Portage Lake Flyers dropped Calumet 9-0.

Carpenter said the state finals will be held March 4-6 and hosted by the Kensington Valley Hockey Association in downstate Brighton.

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Pee Wee AA — 12U

The Superior Hockey Junior Wildcats made a bid for the district title in the finals when the PL Flyers won 1-0 as Marquette goalie Jacob Geller stopped 28 of 29 shots.

Other details from the game weren’t available as Marquette was challenging the No. 1 Pat’s Foods AA team in the state that entered the weekend with a 32-5-1 record.

Superior Hockey, now 25-18-2, got off to a rousing start Friday with a 10-1 win over Calumet as Cooper Andresen, Easton Bal and Tyler Matulewicz each had two goals and Mason Swenor stopped nine of 10 shots in goal.

Wyatt Shunk, Caleb Aho, Henry Kruger and Mason Hartz each had one goal for the winners, while Shunk also had a three-assist playmaker.

Aho added two assists, while Andresen and Kruger had one assist apiece.

No score was available from the Portage Lake-Calumet game on Saturday.

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The American Legion Junior Wildcats effectively wrapped up their spot in the state tourney with a 7-0 victory over Calumet on Friday, but a 9-1 victory over PL on Sunday gave Marquette its much-coveted U.P. championship.

The Legion Wildcats, who improved to 37-8-2, play at the MAHA state tourney in Houghton and Hancock from March 11-13, according to Nebel.

On Saturday, PL edged Calumet 3-2.

Against the Calumet Junior Kings, Marquette season leading scorer Landon Carpenter again led the way with two goals, his second one that was also the team’s final one coming shorthanded.

Carpenter also had a three-assist playmaker on the Legion’s first three goals, all in the opening period.

Kyle Moyer and Seth Sandstrom each added a goal and two assists, while Owen Potulny and Nolan Bink both had a goal and one assist.

Also scoring for Marquette was Brody Sheldon, while also getting an assist was Brody LeMire, Mason Lautenschlager and Braydon O’Dovero.

Marquette goalie McCullen Hayes stopped every shot he faced for the shutout as the Wildcats held a 32-15 shots advantage.

In the game against the Portage Lake Flyers, Potulny got his three-goal hat trick while Moyer had more than a playmaker with four assists.

Moyer also had two goals to boot.

Also scoring for Marquette was Sheldon, Carter Berling and Lucas Belkowski, while Sandstrom, Bink and Carpenter each had two assists, and LeMire and Lucas Reamer each had one assist.

Surprisingly, PL got on the board first not even three minutes in with an unassisted goal by Hudson Markham, though the Legion needed less than four minutes to take the lead following quick goals by Potulny and Sheldon.

Marquette scored three goals in each period.

Parker Nevenhoven got the win in net, stopping 30 of 31 shots, while the Legion peppered PL goalie Kasen Helminen with 32 shots.

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