Assistant captain Rory Anderson and Ed Beiring each potted two goals for Calumet.

Redmen coach Doug Garrow was pleasantly surprised by the efforts of his club in the final frame as they fought to the final buzzer. They scored a power-play goal, a shorthanded goal, and two others, including one with just three seconds left.

Article Photos

Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette
The Copper Kings' Trevor Johnson unleashes a wrist shot during the first period of a game against the Redmen Tuesday night at the Calumet Colosseum. Johnson' shot eluded Dylan Sibilsky to give the Copper Kings the early 1-0 lead.

 

"We wanted to build on something going into this weekend," said Garrow. "I liked our kids' work ethic and compete level in the third period. I just have to get across to them that if we do that for three periods, we have a chance to be successful."

The opening period was evenly played until a penalty to Kristian Jackson put the Copper Kings on the power play at 5 minutes, 18 seconds. Fourteen seconds later, Trevor Johnson found the back of the net when his wrist shot from the right point slid through traffic and into the back of the net.

Just 29 seconds later, Beiring fired a shot on goal that Redmen goaltender Dylan Sibilsky stopped. As co-captain Jacob Anderson and a Redmen defender went to the net for the rebound, the puck hit the defender and ended up in the net.

Two shifts later, Calumet struck again. Rory Anderson and co-captain Robbie Erkkila skated in on a two-on-one. Anderson waited until the last moment before feeding the puck to Erkkila, who buried a one-timer at 8:13.

"We played really well for two periods," said Copper Kings coach Dan Giachino. "We did what we wanted to do... most of that was due to our team speed up front."

The Redmen had their first quality scoring chance with 7:25 remaining in the period when Caden Paquette skated in, drove to the outside around a Copper Kings' defender, and fired a shot that Ian Carroll gobbled up. Carroll finished the night with 29 saves.

Garrow considered pulling Sibilsky after the Copper Kings' hot start, but decided the timing was not right.

"I was thinking about it, but I did not fault Dylan on many of those goals," said Garrow. "A lot of those goals were missed checks and assignments. Dylan was not playing terrible."

In the second period, the Copper Kings were awarded a power play when Tanner Carriere took a tripping penalty at 5:08. It took Calumet almost a minute to strike.

Johnson got the puck down to Erkkila who fired a shot that Sibilsky stopped. The rebound kicked out to where Rory Anderson was standing, and he knocked it home for the fourth Calumet goal at 6:02.

Tanner Phillips nearly had a breakaway shortly after for the Redmen, but Tyler Rautio got back and knocked the puck away before he could shoot.

The Redmen had a golden opportunity early on the penalty kill when a shot from captain Jake Phillips skipped off the ice and up off the crossbar after beating Carroll on the direction change.

The Copper Kings responded by getting the puck down the ice and controlling play from there. Jacob Anderson fed the puck to Beiring for a one-timer that beat Sibilsky at 10:32.

Phillips took a major penalty for boarding at 11:31, putting the Copper Kings back on the power play. Just 23 seconds in, they struck.

Johnson took a pass from Rory Anderson at the right point. Taking his time, he gave the play time to set up before firing a shot at the Redmen net. Assistant captain Ryan Nelson tipped the puck home at 11:54.

At that point, Garrow pulled Sibilsky and put in Travis Cameron. The Copper Kings continued to get shots on goal, but soon after the sixth goal, they found themselves in a four-on-four for the majority of the remainder of the major after Joshua Larson took a tripping penalty.

On a power play in the third, the Redmen finally broke through when Donny Schultz knocked home a rebound at 6:43.

"They did not give up," said Giachino. "They wanted to tighten that game as much as they possibly could. I thought they did a good job of getting to the net, getting traffic, looking for rebounds and they made plays."

Rory Anderson answered the Redmen goal by crashing the net on another Calumet power play. Anderson was checked into Cameron from behind by one of the Redmen defenders. While falling, he knocked the puck past Cameron for the goal at 9:03.

During a lengthy shift in the Calumet end, the Redmen got their cycle going, keeping the puck in the offensive zone for several seconds before Carriere knocked home a loose puck at 12:17.

While shorthanded after a penalty was whistled on Tony Fedrizzi, Joseph Phillips stole the puck behind the Calumet net. Skating back out front, he turned and fired a backhand shot back the way he came and it beat Carroll at 15:30.

The Redmen scored their fourth and final tally with just three seconds remaining in the game as Colin Gaffney found the back of the net.