Yellowjackets 8, Finlandia 1
 
HANCOCK, Mich.: The Yellowjacket men's hockey team needed a game where things just went right. After a stretch of outplaying opponents but ultimately losing games, the Yellowjackets needed a day where the bounces went their way.

Saturday the Yellowjackets traveled to Finlandia and found what they were looking for.
 
The Yellowjackets scored three times in a span of 3:10 late in a four-goal second period on the way to an 8-1 drubbing of Finlandia at the Houghton County Arena.
 
With the win the Yellowjackets snap a five-game losing skid, and in the process got offensive contributions from a number of different players. The penalty kill was perfect and the power play scored four times. But through the first half of the game, it was anything but a drubbing.
 
In a tightly played first period things were scoreless through the first 15 minutes until the Yellowjackets converted on a power play. After Finlandia sold out in an attempt at a shorthanded goal, Jordan Martin (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Vincent Massey Collegiate) turned the puck up ice and sent Andrew Durham (Richardson, Texas/Plano East) in on a breakaway. And just like Friday Durham converted, picked up his sixth goal of the year to make it 1-0. Durham now has goals in five straight games.
 
The score stayed 1-0 until the 9:32 mark of the second period. That's when Troy York (Plano, Texas/West) scored a power play goal from the left circle, snapping a shot past the glove of goaltender Santeri Seppinen.
 
Finlandia scored its lone goal of the game at 12:35 on a deflection by Bryce Mitzel, but the Yellowjackets answered en masse to pull away.
 
York scored his second power play goal of the game at 13:49, blasting a one-timer from the left circle past Seppinen. At 15:14 Ryan Carlson (Hermantown, Minn./Hermantown) crossed the Finlandia line and unloaded a rocket that eluded Seppinen up high to make it 4-1. Carlson's first goal of the year spelled the end of the day for Seppinen, but the Yellowjackets were far from through. Less than two minutes after the change Troy MacTavish (Kanata, Ontario/Earl of March) scored his second of the year, pushing a rebound into a wide-open net at 16:59 to give the Yellowjackets a 5-1 lead after two periods.
 
At 6:16 of the third period Coltyn Bates (Brandon, Manitoba/Vincent Massey Collegiate) scored his first collegiate goal, burying a rebound to the left of the Finlandia goal off a shot by Alec MacKenzie (Ottawa, Ontario/École Secondaire Garneau) to push the lead to 6-1. Martin picked up his second assist of the game when he sprung Chad Lopez (Arlington, Texas/University of Texas at Arlington) behind the defense, and Lopez deked Lions' goaltender Marcus Gloss to score his fifth of the year at 7:35.

The Yellowjackets closed out the scoring at 12:43 of the third period when Daniel Litchke (Superior, Wis./Superior) picked up a rebound of a MacTavish shot and scored his first of the year to make the final score 8-1.
 
York, Carlson, and Litchke all finished with three points in the game.
 
It was a good day on special teams for the Yellowjackets. The power play clipped at 50 percent, scoring four times in eight tries. Meanwhile the much-maligned penalty kill was perfect, killing off all five Finlandia power plays, including a five-on-three early in the first period.

A.J. Smith (Keller, Texas/Southlake Carroll) got the start and earned his first win as a Yellowjacket, finishing the game with 16 saves.
 
Up Next: The Yellowjackets (2-5-1, 0-0-0 W.I.A.C.) will travel across the bridge to take on St. Scholastica Tuesday. Game time from Mars-Lakeview Arena is set for 7:00 p.m.