Theresa Proudfit/The Daily News Photo KINGSFORD’S ETHAN FOX fires a shot past Houghton’s Brandon Norkol during Thursday’s high school hockey action at Mountain View Ice Arena.

IRON MOUNTAIN — Junior forward Nathan Erva scored two goals to lead Houghton past Kingsford 3-1 at Mountain View Ice Arena Thursday night.

Unfortunately, the Great Lakes Hockey Conference game wasn’t without some controversy.

Erva got his first of two goals in the game on a power play in the first period on an assist from freshman Camden Markham to give the visitors from the Copper Country a 1-0 lead.

Only 27 seconds into the second period, Erva netted a second goal, a 5-on-5 tally this time, to give the Gremlins a 2-0 lead.

Later in the second period, there was a scrum in front of the Gremlins’ net, where all-state Houghton goalie Jimmy Pietila ended up inside the cage. And from certain vantage points, so did the puck. However, the goal was disallowed and the period ended with Houghton leading 2-0.

The third period was back and forth, with not a whole lot of excitement until the last 49 seconds of the hockey game. The action was in front of the Gremlins’ net. One of the referees blew his whistle to stop play and a second later the puck went into the net.

One of the two referees signaled that the goal was good, the other two signaled that there was a stoppage in play. At that point, the three huddled for a brief conference. They skated away from one another and it was determined that the goal stood.

Houghton head coach Corey Markham was irate, as was Pietila. They and others felt the wrong call had been made, and Pietila and the Gremlins lost a shutout with less than a minute to go in the game.

Carter Kreski was given credit for the Flivvers’ goal, with Hunter and Reece Fortner assisting. Niko Rajala added an empty netter for Houghton with 11 seconds remaining in the game, dropping the Flivvers to 9-10 on the season.

The Gremlins outshot Kingsford 24-15. Despite the shot difference going in Houghton’s favor, Kingsford head coach Greg Wadge was pleased with his team’s performance on the night.

“The last time we played them, up at Dee Stadium (in Houghton), we got mercied 8-0,” he said. “We probably didn’t get more than five or six shots on goal in that game. And for us to hold Houghton to only 24 shots in the game, that’s outstanding for us defensively.”

Wadge and his coaching staff noted that the boys play during power plays was better tonight than in previous games.

“The kids played hard all three quarters, which we usually do here at home,” said Wadge.

Coach Markham credited the Flivvers’ effort.

“It was a tight game,” he said. “Kingsford played very hard tonight, and we weren’t able to get any separation. I thought our jump in the second period was much higher than in the first, we were sleepwalking in the first period, maybe jet lag from the bus ride.”

The Gremlins played without two key players tonight, with leading scorer Tucker Tapani sitting out due to injury, while Sully Rajala missed the game due to an illness – an illness that Markham said went through his locker room the last couple of weeks.

“I am very disappointed that our goaltender loses his shutout the way he did. On a blatant whistle, where the goal clearly went in after that whistle, but yet they still counted it. An absolute mistake and such a shame,” said Markham.

Noting like many other GLHC coaches do, Markham made it clear that his team has always struggled playing at Mountain View.

“For years and years, it’s like clockwork, we seem to come off the bus slow. It never fails here. Their goalie is very good as well, like he was tonight,” said Markham.

Kingsford is off until Thursday, when they travel to Rhinelander, WI for non-conference action.

Houghton 1 1 1 –3

Kingsford 0 0 1 — 1

1ST PERIOD: H- Nathan Erva (Camden Markham) PP 15:09

2ND PERIOD: H- Erva (Brandon Norkol, Ty Halonen) 0:27

3RD PERIOD: K – Carter Kreski (Hunter and Reece Fortner) 16:11

H- Niko Rajala (Unassisted) 16:49