WELLS — Beware of Marquette’s power play.

It can be very dangerous.

The Escanaba Eskymos got caught in that position here Thursday night as they dropped a 5-2 hockey decision to the Sentinels.

Marquette cashed in on 3-of-5 of those while improving to 8-3-1 overall and 2-0-2 in the Great Lakes Conference with its third straight victory.

“We got off to a real good start,” Esky coach Andy Johnson said. “Unfortunately, they got some power plays and their shots from the point got through. Marquette has a real good power play and we knew that going in. Marquette was also blocking a lot of shots all night long. They had real good coverage in their defensive zone.”

Sophomore forward Gunnar LaMarch scored Esky’s first goal from the slot six minutes into the contest and senior forward Ben Sands gave the Eskymos a two-goal cushion from the doorstep at 8:55.

The Eskymos took three minor penalties in the opening frame and the Sentinels scored a pair of goals 23 seconds apart.

Senior forward Brody LeMire sliced Marquette’s deficit in half and classmate Brody Shelton tied the score with 69 seconds remaining in the first period.

“We capitalized on our chances,” Marquette coach Doug Garrow said. “We’ve got some talented forwards who run our power play real well. Our power-play breakout was really good tonight.”

The Eskymos outshot the Sentinels 11-10 in the second stanza, but the score remained tied at two going into the third.

Marquette added its third power-play goal on LeMire’s shot from the left faceoff circle 2:46 into the third frame.

Senior forward Trey Savola gave the Sentinels a 4-2 lead on a 2-on-1 break at 6:20 and sophomore defenseman Jacob Spagnolo added an empty-netter from the Marquette zone with 9.1 seconds left in the contest.

“I thought we played a good hockey game,” Johnson said. “I also thought we were in a good spot early in the third period. I think they had a little more jump than we did and played a good game. I think tonight’s game made us a stronger team. We’ll be ready to go.”

Esky finished with a 28-27 shots on goal edge. Senior netminder Cully Hayes had 22 saves. Marquette senior goaltender Parker Nevenhoven stopped 25 shots.

“Parker kind of struggled early, then he settled down and did a pretty good job for us,” Garrow said. “We were skating four full lines and they were going with 2½. They have some good players, but we have more depth. I think Escanaba got a little tired in the end.”

Esky, which finished 0-for-2 on its power play, hosts Saginaw Heritage today at 2 p.m.

Marquette, which hosted the same foe Friday night, travels to Iron Mountain to face Kingsford Tuesday.