Northland 5, Yellowjackets 3
 
ASHLAND, Wis.: Third periods have not been kind to the Yellowjacket men's hockey team in 2018-19.
 
Over the first six games of the season, opponents outscored the Yellowjackets 9-5 in the third period. And unfortunately, the trend continued in Friday's game with Northland.
 
The Lumberjacks scored four times in the third period, including three goals in the first 5:51 of the period to pull away and defeat the Yellowjackets 5-3 at the Bay Area Civic Center in Ashland.
 
Making it an even more bitter pill to swallow is the fact the Yellowjackets played one of their best periods of the season in the second and exited the frame with the lead.
 
Northland got on the board first when Ty Kraus scored shorthanded, sweeping a loose puck past Yellowjacket goaltender Oscar Svensson (Södertälje, Sweden/Haga Gymnasium) at 7:32 of the first period.
 
The Yellowjackets came out for the second period and looked like a completely different team than they were in the first. With the ice seemingly tilted, the Yellowjackets controlled the play for the entire period and put a pair of goals on the board to pull ahead.

Troy York (Plano, Texas/West) scored his fifth goal of the year at 8:32 of the second to tie the game. With the Yellowjackets on the power play, York took a pass in the left circle from Artur Terchiyev (Kiev, Ukraine/Everst Academy) and one-timed the puck past the Northland goaltender.
 
A few minutes later the Yellowjackets took the lead thanks to a bit of fancy stickhandling by Andrew Durham (Richardson, Texas/Plano East). Coming into the Northland zone on the left wing Durham put the puck in his own skates and the pulled himself and puck around a checker before wristing a shot past Lumberjack goaltender David Krejcik to make it 2-1 at 16:24.
 
The Yellowjackets took a penalty at the 20:00 mark of the second, giving Northland a power play to start the third period, and the Lumberjacks took advantage. Kurt Sonne scored on the power play just 1:29 in to tie the game. A few minutes later, at 3:22, Gus Ford buried a rebound to put Northland ahead for good. Jacob Jeske added the eventual game-winning goal at 5:51 to make it a 4-2 game.
 
At 10:26 of the third the Yellowjackets got one back, and once again it was Durham. This time the junior converted on a breakaway, taking a shot from between the circles that beat Krejcik low to the glove side to make it 4-3.
 
With 2:16 to play the Yellowjackets went on the power play with a chance to tie it, but instead Northland got the goal as Luke DeBenedet scored into an empty net to make the final score 5-3.
 
York, in addition to his goal added an assist, giving him a team-best 10 points on the year.
 
Svensson made his first start of the season and took the loss, finishing the night with 16 saves.
 
Up Next: The Yellowjackets (1-5-1, 0-0-0 W.I.A.C.) stay on the road and will take on Finlandia Saturday afternoon. The opening faceoff is set for 5:00 Central Standard Time from the Houghton County Arena.