Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press Escanaba’s Karson Krutina (left) hits Gaylord’s Vaughn Voss during Friday’s game at Wells.

WELLS — Back on Dec. 1, 2017 a young Escanaba hockey team hosted Gaylord at what was then the Wells Sports Complex.

Esky was up 4-2 late in the third period before the Blue Devils scored twice in the final 18 seconds of regulation and got the game-winner in overtime for a 5-4 victory.

The Eskymos finished the job this time as they hung on for a 3-2 triumph over Gaylord at the Hannahville Ice & Turf Complex Friday night.

Esky preserved the victory by keeping the puck in their attacking zone in the final 60-plus seconds, preventing the Blue Devils from pulling their goaltender.

The Eskymos took a 3-0 lead with an unassisted goal by freshman defenseman Gunner Bourdeau two minutes, 39 seconds into the second stanza.

Gaylord got one back on senior defenseman Samuel Gorno’s marker from the low slot at 13:37 and trimmed its deficit to 3-2 on junior forward Nathaniel Kleinsorge’s one-timer from the high slot in the closing moments of the second frame.

“We thought we were in the driver’s seat when we scored the third goal,” said Esky coach Matt Hughes. “I think that may have caught their goaltender a little off guard. I don’t think he thought Gunner was going to shoot.

“They definitely had more momentum at the end of the second period and we were more complacent. In the locker room, we told the guys to ‘work as hard as you can for 17 minutes and you’re going to win the hockey game.’ When they called the timeout (with approximately three minutes left in the third) we told the guys we didn’t want to give them any room. We wanted to take their time and space away.”

The Eskymos were forced to kill three penalties in the third stanza. Gaylord’s last power-play opportunity, however, was cut short by a minor infraction of its own.

“That last penalty probably sealed our fate,” said Gaylord coach Jamie Voss. “We needed that power play bad. They were good at finishing the game. They were tough and aggressive in the end.”

Senior forward Ethan Silverstone played a bounce in the low slot and pushed the puck past junior goaltender Brewer Kolezar for Esky’s first goal 14:38 into the opening frame.

Silverstone added Esky’s second goal on a rebound just 28 seconds later.

“There were a lot of guys going to the net,” said Hughes. “That was a good bounce on the first goal and we were able to take advantage of it. We had two forwards out, which brought us down to eight. Our forwards did a good job considering we were a little shorthanded.”

Gaylord outshot Esky 26-19. Esky senior Trevor Denome stopped 24 shots and Kolezar had 16 saves.

“We didn’t test their goaltender enough, although he’s a good technical goaltender,” said Voss. “They were always in our passing lanes and we couldn’t get the shots we wanted. You can’t give No. 14 (Silverstone) any amount of time because he’s going to tear you up. We tend to play conservative, but we knew we couldn’t do that tonight. They’re a good team. These are the types of teams we need to play.”

Gaylord went 0-for-6 on the power play and the Eskymos were 0-for-4.

“We got ourselves in penalty trouble, but Trevor came up big,” said Hughes. “We did pretty on our penalty kill.”

Esky (12-10) is idle until Feb. 20 when it travels to Hancock. Gaylord (10-9) faces Kingsford today in Iron Mountain.

Gaylord 0 2 0 — 2

Escanaba 2 1 0 — 3

First period

E — Silverstone (Kyle Krutina), 14:38

E — Silverstone (Kyle Krutina), 15:06

Second period

E — G. Bourdeau (unassisted), 2:39

G — Gorno (Kleinsorge and Hurst), 13:37

G — Kleinsorge (unassisted), 16:30

Shots on goal: Gaylord 26, Escanaba 19

Goaltender saves: Gaylord (Koleszar 16), Escanaba (Denome 24).

Power plays: Gaylord 0-6, Escanaba 0-4.