Kingsford’s Pete Ropiak (14) bodychecks Hancock’s Petr Anderson (15) on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, in Iron Mountain, Mich. (Adam Niemi/Iron Mountain Daily News)

The Bulldogs (19-6) went 4 of 5 along with a short-handed goal in the win.

“It seemed like all game long we stayed a step ahead of them. There was always just a little bit and in the third period we just wanted to finish it off,” Hancock head coach Dan Rouleau said. “Our special teams was really good tonight. Our power-play moved the puck two, three times and we had a goal. Very good movement – it almost seemed like easy goals but they just moved it so well tonight. On the penalty kill we controlled the puck a lot. Our special teams were very good tonight.”

Dawson Kero’s 27 saves backstopped against Kingsford’s high-speed attack throughout the game. Kero faced 15 shots in the second period as the Flivvers (16-7-1) hurt their chances by making penalties and keeping the tilt in Hancock’s favor.

Alex Nordstrom’s five goals and one assist led Hancock’s offense. He scored all four of the Bulldogs’ power-play goals.

Hancock goaltender Dawson Kero (30) makes a save against Kingsford on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, in Iron Mountain, Mich. (Adam Niemi/Iron Mountain Daily News)

Nick Murvich shot the puck directly off the faceoff for Kingsford’s goal with 10:38 remaining in the third period.

But then Hancock took advantage of a 5-on-3 when Nordstrom’s goal opened the game for the Bulldogs. It was a back-breaker for Kingsford, who had threatened with multiple quality scoring chances in the second and third periods.

“We can’t give that many power-play opportunities. They’re going to kill you every time. Four power-play goals and one short-handed. That’s five goals right there,” Kingsford head coach Dennis Murvich said. “The turning point was the 5-on-3 and they scored on the 5-on-3 and they scored on the 5-on-4. Until that point, I thought we had the momentum back after Nick scored off the faceoff there. I thought we had momentum back, we had some quality chances in the next four to five minutes after that goal. We could’ve made it 5-4. Then, take two penalties and there’s the game. Instead of 5-3 it goes to 7-3 in the space of about a minute and 10 seconds. There’s your game.”

Kingsford started Evan Hedtke in goal but came out after misplaying the puck behind the net and allowing an unassisted goal to Teddy Randell in the second period. The goal broke a 2-2 deadlock. Trevor Anderson came in off the bench and was immediately put to the test by Hancock.

“Just trying to find somebody that’s hot. You hate doing that. You don’t want to embarrass the kid and you don’t want to make that change halfway through and put someone cold in,” Murvich said. “We needed to find somebody we felt was going to give us a good chance. To Trevor’s credit, he kept us in it in the second period, he really did. He made some great saves right out of the gate. Actually until they scored late in the second, a kind of deflection that bounced in. I think it bounced off of us, I’ll have to look at the tape. Not much he can do on that.

“I thought (Anderson) did exactly what we wanted out of him. He came in and stopped the flow and held them. He made some big saves and your guys get excited,” Murvich added. “They started free-wheeling a little more and came up with some shots on net. Nick scored another crazy ridiculous goal. That energized our guys for probably a good five-, six-minute stretch.”

Rouleau said his team also has to stay out of the penalty box after committing five penalties. Despite that, he was pleased with his team’s special teams play.

“We hate to be on the penalty kill but that worked so well tonight. When we took a penalty we said let’s take advantage of that. Our movement was just great,” Rouleau said. “Your special teams are so huge playoff time. We’ve had a pretty good power-play all year and we’ve had a good penalty kill all year. That’s a big part of our game. What we need to do is keep our guys out of the penalty box. We don’t want to be killing off penalties but it’s nice to know that we are working.”

Daunte Fortner, a Kingsford junior and one of the state’s leading scorers, returned to the Flivvers after a week-long stay with the Corpus Christi IceRays of the North American Hockey League. Fortner practiced during the week with the team and was available to play but saw no ice time in the IceRay’s 2-1 win over the Topeka RoadRunners.

Although Fortner didn’t tally a point against Hancock, Rouleau said Fortner and his linemate Nick Murvich are a couple tough matchups for his team. Murvich shot the puck off the faceoff for a quick goal in the third period.

“Just talent. No. 8 is a great player, Fortner. The Murvich kid is a very good player,” Rouleau said. “It’s nice to come down here at the end of the year and have a hard game, because you’re going into the playoffs. You don’t want to come down here and mercy anybody. It’s nice to see them bounce back and give us a hard time. It’s nice to have that going into the playoffs.”

The Bulldogs are gearing for another state championship run with a core of eight seniors. Rouleau said the schedule has been tough.

“We’ve lost a few games lately but the quality of opponents has been very high — Plymouth, Brighton — and we’ve played them tough,” Rouleau said. “We ran a pretty tough schedule this year. You look at Hancock, Houghton and Calumet, there’s two of the top three teams in the state who are going to be gone after the first round in the regionals, which is kind of disappointing. Marquette and Kingsford have to play the first game, same thing. Two quality teams in that region have to play right off the bat. I guess it’s time for a seeding situation in the playoffs. Hopefully we’ll have a good run in the playoffs. If we have as good a run as we did two years ago, we’ll have a state championship. Not only that, but we’ll set a school record for wins in a season. We’ve had a good year.”

Hancock hosts Houghton at Michigan Tech’s SDC in the first round of the playoffs at 7 p.m. EST Monday.

Kingsford hosts Marquette at 7 p.m. EST Tuesday.

Hancock 2 3 3 — 8

Kingsford 1 1 1 — 3

First Period

HHS — Austin Salani (Alex Nordstrom), 9:12

KHS — Drew Hebert (Ethan Fox), 5:34

HHS — Nordstrom (Colton Salani, Teddy Randell), power-play, 3:47

Second Period

KHS — Pete Ropiak (Lee Hedtke), power-play, 16:28

HHS — T. Randell (unassisted), short-handed, 10:27

HHS — Nordstrom (C. Salani), power-play, 1:13

Third Period

KHS — Nick Murvich (unassisted), 10:38

HHS — Nordstrom (A. Salani), power-play, 4:32

HHS — Nordstrom (T. Randell, Teddy Perrault), 3:29

HHS — Nordstrom (C. Salani), power-play, 0:50