(Dennis Mansfield/Daily News photo) Kingsford goaltender Isaiah Anderson sprawls out of his crease to cover the puck against two Escanaba Eskymos while teammate David Juul supports in an MHSAA Regional semifinal game on Thursday night at Mountain View Ice Arena. The Flivvers and the Eskymos staged a memorable battle with Escanaba posting a 4-3 win in quadruple overtime.

IRON MOUNTAIN — Late in the first period of Thursday night’s MHSAA Division 2 regional hockey game, the Escanaba Eskymos scored two goals in a three-minute span to break a scoreless tie with host Kingsford.

Given that the Eskymos had beaten the Flivvers twice during the regular season and the fact that Kingsford entered the game with just three wins, Escanaba seemed on its way to a routine victory. Not.

The Flivvers got one back in the second period, and after falling behind 3-1 in the third, scored two goals in the final 1:23 to send the game into overtime. Kingsford’s tying goal by sophomore defenseman Wyatt Scott came with 1.7 seconds left in regulation and sent the home crowd into hysterics.

From there, the game went on and on and on. The outcome was not decided until Escanaba junior Sawyer LaMarch scored with 2:58 left in the fourth overtime to defeat the Flivvers 4-3 and send his team into the Regional 9 final against Marquette on Tuesday at the Negaunee Ice Arena.

LaMarch’s game-winner put an end to an epic high school hockey battle.

“It was insane,” LaMarch said outside a boisterous Escanaba locker room. “Everyone was grinding, their team and our team, and everyone was playing defensive hockey. My brother (Jayger) put one out there in the high slot and I just sent her home.

“I saw it go in and I didn’t know what to do with myself,” LaMarch continued. “I had tears streaming down my face.”

On the other side, the Flivver players on the ice at the time just dropped. It was an abrupt end to a regional game that balanced on a high wire for nearly 30 clock minutes of overtime.

“I thought our guys played our best game of the year,” Flivver coach Greg Wadge said, his voice breaking. “Isaiah was fantastic in net and (our players) just didn’t quit. It was a fantastic high school hockey game and hats off to Esky for winning.”

As usual, Anderson stood huge in the Kingsford net. The Eskymos (18-9) are a team blessed with speed and talent and they sent breakaway after breakaway at Anderson during the contest. But the sophomore goalie, who was selected to the Great Lakes Hockey Conference second team, stymied Escanaba shooters time after time.

“Isaiah Anderson played unbelievable between the pipes,” Escanaba head coach Andy Johnson said. “He was stopping everything we were throwing at him. Some of the chances I thought we had we missed, but if we got them, he was making the saves, so hats off to that kid.”

After about 13 minutes of goalless action to start the game, senior Jayger LaMarch scored on a power play to give his team a step up. Then 58 seconds later, junior Trevor Streichert doubled the lead with an even-strength goal.

But the Eskymos became their own worst enemy in the second period, taking five minor penalties. On the fourth one, Kingsford freshman Jaxon Buckley cut the Flivvers’ deficit in half with a shot past Esky senior Dylan Ziemke with 3:28 left in the period.

The goal lifted Kingsford’s spirit and confidence, and from there the game, which had been dominated by Escanaba to that point, was evenly played.

“We know that as a group that we can’t be taking penalties, especially five in the second period,” Johnson said. “We cleaned it up in the third, but we just couldn’t bury any of our chances that we had.”

Well, they did bury one. With 8:06 left in regulation, Sawyer LaMarch restored his team’s two-goal advantage when he worked free on the left side and sent a wrist shot past Anderson. The outcome looked like a formality at that point, but the Flivvers had other plans in mind.

With 1:23 left, senior forward Hunter Fortner emerged from a scrum in the right corner and fired a shot in to bring Kingsford within one. That led to Scott’s goal from the slot with time ticking off to set up what turned out to be an exhausting but exhilarating series of overtimes, ended by Sawyer LaMarch

“Sawyer’s one of our guys that seems like he doesn’t get tired,” Johnson said. “We can lean on him a lot, (he has) unbelievable stamina. He got a lot of minutes in OT, he got a lot of chances and he buried that one.”

“The shot came in low glove on the short side,” Anderson said simply. “Beat me to it.”

However, the goal by no means took away from the sensational effort by the Kingsford goalie, who was confident in his team going in.

“We had only three wins and lot of people were thinking we were going to lose this one with our past two losses with Esky,” he said. “I didn’t think that, and some kids didn’t think that, either. We showed it at the end, too.”

With the defeat, the prep careers of Kingsford seniors Kurt Ryan, Hunter Fortner, David Juul, Daniel Maki and Tony Kralovec came to an end. Wadge spoke about the group afterwards.

“They were a great group of guys,” the Kingsford coach said. “We talked about senior leadership and being an example for the eight freshmen and how the game is played and the work ethic (needed) and they did a fantastic job of leadership.”

Jerry DeRoche can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 244, or at jderoche@ironmountaindailynews.com.