Calumet goaltender Hunter Tuoriniemi makes a save on Hancock forward Tevin Stukel during a game Friday at the Calumet Colosseum. Calumet defenseman Jax Carlson reaches in to try to knock the rebound away. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)
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CALUMET — With a 3-0 win on Friday and a 4-1 win on Saturday, the Hancock Bulldogs hockey team earned a sweep of the 48th annual Copper Island Classic over the Calumet Copper Kings at the Calumet Colosseum.
Jackson Sinkowski had a huge Saturday night to help the Bulldogs (3-0-1) to a series victory. Hunter Tuoriniemi did everything he could to make life miserable for the Bulldogs throughout the weekend, making 67 saves over the course of the weekend.
HANCOCK GETS TWO LATE TO WIN
Through 25:18 of action, Tuoriniemi, a senior goaltender playing in just his second varsity game, held the game scoreless no matter what Hancock threw his way.
Hancock co-captain Bryce Hanner broke the scoreless tie at 8:18 of the middle frame when he and Sinkowski forced the Copper Kings into an uncomfortable position in their own end. Sinkowski, a junior, forced a turnover and quickly moved the puck over to Hanner, who beat Tuoriniemi with a wrist shot.
Hancock coach Pete Rouleau loved the effort he got from Sinkowski, who finished his night with two goals and an assist. For Rouleau, it was important to get depth scoring throughout the weekend.
“I don’t think we can rely on one line to score,” he said. “I think we need contributions from everyone.”
Prior to that tally, the Bulldogs controlled much of the game and fired pucks at Tuoriniemi relentlessly, but the Copper Kings netminder threw out legs, a glove, a blocker, anything to keep things even. Hancock had five shots in the first minute, and at least nine in the first three minutes.
“We’ve got to be able to handle some things better in our own end,” said Copper Kings coach Dan Giachino. “We’re given the puck away a lot, and we have to keep working at that and stop giving up the easy stuff right now.”
A series of penalties slowed the flow of pucks to Tuoriniemi, which seemed to work to Calumet’s advantage, despite the fact that at one point, they had three skaters in the box and Hancock had just one.
Sinkowski figured in Hancock’s second goal, which broke a 1-1 tie at 16:23 of the second. Senior forward Bennett Sturos jumped out of the penalty box and got the puck shortly after. He quickly moved the puck over to Sinkowski, who skated in alone and beat Tuoriniemi with a backhand.
For his second goal, Sinkowski took advantage of a faceoff in the offensive zone in the third. Freshman forward Brady Axford won the draw to Sinkowski in the left circle, and Sinkowksi quickly fired a wrist shot that seemed to surprise Tuoriniemi through traffic at 4:02.
From there, the Copper Kings (0-2) seemed to lose steam, and struggled to mount much of an attack from there for the next several minutes.
“That one goes in, and it’s kind of that deflating feeling, I think, for a little bit there,” said Giachino. “I mean, that’s part of the game, that’s part of the ups and downs, and we’ll learn from it.”
Hancock added one more goal late in the third when senior forward Bryce Vanderwest batted a pass from junior forward Damien Colombe past Tuoriniemi at 14:57.
Calumet’s lone goal for the weekend came off the stick of junior forward Brendan Boberg less than a minute after Hanner’s tally. Boberg and senior forward Cam Anderson sprung themselves on a 2-on-1 break. Anderson fired the initial shot, and Boberg backhanded the rebound past senior goaltender Daniel Wroblewski at 9:05 of the second.
Wroblewski made 21 saves to earn the win.
BULLDOGS WIN FRIDAY, 3-0
CALUMET — In the opening game of the Copper Island Classic Friday night, the Hancock Bulldogs hockey team held off the Calumet Copper Kings for a 3-0 win at the Calumet Colosseum.
Tuoriniemi, making his varsity debut, kept the Bulldogs off the board for the game’s first 25:20 before a 2-on-1 rush changed the complexion of the game. Bulldogs freshman winger Tevin Stukel carried the puck into the offensive zone and he made a pass across to Colombe, who broke the scoreless tie with a wrist shot.
Despite giving up that goal and two more before the final buzzer, Tuoriniemi gave the Copper Kings a chance, and that is all Giachino could ask of him. He finished his first game with 35 saves.
“We got a little sloppy at times on our own end, whether that be defensively or even handling the puck at times,” Giachino said. “We turned the puck over at some points where we didn’t have a lot of pressure on us, and we still didn’t get exits out of the zone.”
Despite the loss, Giachino liked a lot of what he saw and feels that things will get better.
“So, we clearly have to get better in those areas, but pucks are going to go in a net for this group,” he said. “It’s going to happen, and we just have to keep going in that direction.”
Colombe’s tally broke the seal, and on the Bulldogs’ second power play of the night, Hanner extended the lead at 13:58. He set himself up in the left circle and took a cross-ice pass from co-captain Luke Mikkola and he buried a wrist shot up over the blocker of Tuoriniemi.
“Luke Mikkola made a good zone entry, and he had good patience with it,” said Rouleau. “He found a good seam pass and got it to Bryce. Bryce made a good play of hanging onto it, and then going short side high. It was a good shot there.”
Hancock outshot the Copper Kings 16-7 in the first period and 19-12 in the second. While they fired lots of pucks at Tuoriniemi, Rouleau did not feel that his team really challenged Tuoriniemi to make difficult saves.
“I think we had to get better traffic,” he said. “I thought, in the first period, we were waving sticks standing on the side of him. So we told our guys, ‘Get in front of him, take his eyes away.’”
In the latter stages of the second period, the Bulldogs did just that, and they were rewarded for it.
In the third period, the Copper Kings pressured early, but their third penalty of the game ended that momentum. The game remained 2-0 in favor of Hancock until freshman forward Tyler Axford batted a rebound past Tuoriniemi at 7:40.
Rouleau loved the effort he got out of the third line, as it accounted for two of the three goals on the night. He was also happy with the play of senior goaltender Saku Cunard, who stopped all 27 shots sent his way.
UP NEXT
Hancock is off until Friday when they host Howell at the Houghton County Arena at 7:15 p.m.
Calumet is also off until Friday, when they host Trenton at 7 p.m. at the Calumet Colosseum.