MARQUETTE – Senior Night is always a special occasion and Marquette’s Kristian Jackson made his final home game a memorable one.

With just 56.8 seconds left in overtime, Jackson’s shot trickled through the legs of Calumet goalie Ian Carroll and gave Marquette a thrilling 3-2 victory Thursday at Lakeview Arena.

“I guess I was in the right place at the right time,” Jackson said. “The puck bounced out to me and I was kind of handcuffed. The only thing I could do was put my stick on the ice and it happened to go five-hole. It was pretty lucky, but I’ll take it.”

The goal was set up when Calumet’s Trevor Johnson was whistled for hooking after taking down Marquette’s Tanner Carriere on a breakaway. After two backhand tries by Jacob Patterson and Donny Schultz, Jackson’s shot found its way into the net.

With the win, Marquette ends its regular season at 19-6 and Redmen head coach Doug Garrow was pleased with how his team performed.

“I thought we played well the whole game,” he said. “For long stretches we dominated and we held the play in their end a lot. I think that gives us confidence going into the playoffs. Hopefully, we can carry that momentum over.”

Calumet (15-7-3) tied the game near the midpoint of the third period when the Copper Kings took advantage of a Marquette turnover behind the Redmen net. Ryan Nelson intercepted a pass and fired a shot past Redmen goalie Travis Cameron, who finished with 22 saves. This was Calumet’s 10th overtime game this season.

“I thought we played a good hockey game,” Copper Kings head coach Dan Giachino said. “Marquette does some things to you as far as their trap that they kind of threw at us. It slowed us down quite a bit. We got frustrated with it a bit in the second period, but I thought in the third period we did some things to counter it.

“It was a hard-fought game and that’s very typical this time of year.”

The Copper Kings got on the board first 3:20 into the game. Right off the faceoff, Calumet’s Robert Erkkila skated in and beat Cameron five-hole. Nelson almost put the Kings up by two goals late in the first as he made a move past Cameron, but his shot rang off the pipe.

Marquette’s best scoring opportunity in the opening period came on a wraparound attempt by Carriere. Carroll blocked the shot, but the puck squirted free in the crease. The Redmen has two whacks at the puck, but couldn’t score.

Still down 1-0 in the second, Marquette’s offense started to click as the Redmen fired several shots at Carroll. Schultz had a shot ring off the post with 11 minutes remaining and Joe Phillips had a good chance but his shot went wide.

“We made a few adjustments after the first period,” Garrow said. “They were really beating us on the faceoff. I give the credit to the players because they did a much better job of tying their men up off the faceoffs and gain possession of the puck.

“We also really started working down below the goal line and we’ve been preaching that all year.”

At the 10:47 mark, the Redmen broke through when Austin Wachnicki tucked the puck underneath Carroll’s leg pad as the goalie was sliding back into the net. After Calumet was called for elbowing late in the period, Marquette took a 2-1 lead just nine seconds after the penalty was announced. Joe Phillips got a feed from his brother Jake and fired a one-timer at the net. Phillips’ shot was then deflected into the net by Schultz.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.