Todd Rose | Daily Press Escanaba’s Sawyer LaMarch (11) faces off with Kingsford’s Gavin Moore Tuesday in Escanaba.

WELLS — The Escanaba Eskymos helped Andy Johnson earn his first varsity coaching victory here Tuesday night in a 3-1 hockey triumph over the Kingsford Flivvers.

“It’s nice to get this win to get these boys going,” said Johnson. “They showed that even with our short bench, they play good hockey for three periods. The guys came out flying. We could see all week they were ready for this one. Their goalie was real good. He settled in for sure and really stepped up for them.”

Esky scored twice in the first 80 seconds of this season opener.

Freshman forward Riley Stannard needed just 28 seconds to score from the doorstep for his first varsity goal.

“It was nice to see Riley get that quick goal,” said Johnson. “Scoring two goals right away put them back on their heels. I think that showed we were going to battle all night. For being a young team, they certainly started throwing their body around late in the second period. They certainly weren’t backing down.”

Senior forward Karson Krutina then gave the Eskymos a two-goal cushion with a one-timer from the left point.

“Their second goal was a nice one,” said Kingsford coach Greg Wadge “He went upstairs with that one. We left their guy wide open on the first one. Esky played hard, and for the young team we are, we played pretty well. Our goaltender kept us in the game. Our power play was not good. We didn’t set it up.”

Esky junior forward Sawyer LaMarch scored from the high slot for a 3-0 lead 5:14 into the second stanza.

The Eskymos then had some penalty issues in the third frame but allowed just two shots on goal during a five-minute major.

“Having to kill off penalties really hurt us,” said Johnson. “We had Sawyer on D the whole five minutes, and he played his heart out. The boys were flying around and making plays. I was happy with them.”

Freshman forward Jacob Crockford got the Flivvers on the board by scoring from the low slot midway through the third.

“We had a couple quality chances we didn’t cash in on,” said Wadge. “We made some young mistakes, but the guys stuck with it. For having eight freshmen playing their first game, it wasn’t too bad. We can certainly build on this.”