Kingsford junior forward Jake Crockford fires a shot on net during the second period Thursday against Mosinee. (Ron Deuter photo)

MOSINEE, Wis. — Kingsford came back from a early deficit and found themselves locked in a 2-2 battle entering the final period of a non-conference hockey matchup against a bigger and deeper Mosinee squad Thursday evening, but the Indians erupted for three third-period tallies and dropped the Flivvers 5-2.

After falling behind 2-0 in the game’s first four minutes, Kingsford (5-13-0) rallied for two scores of its own before the period concluded and arguably dominated what was a scoreless second frame.But the momentum swung back to the Indians (11-6-0) quickly in the third.

“I honestly didn’t think the third period was going to end up like that,” Flivvers head coach Greg Wadge said. “I didn’t think we were very good in the first, gave up a couple of easy ones. Second period we were really good, moved the puck well, had a lot of chances. I thought (Mosinee) looked tired.

“And the third period, we came out and we missed some passes that could have led to breakaways, one of which just missed and turned into an icing, and 15 seconds later it’s in the back of the net for them. And we’ve talked about that all year. Hockey is a game of small mistakes, and there are teams who capitalize on them and teams don’t. And we were on the wrong end of that tonight.”

Junior Gavin Moore buried Kingsford’s first goal, a laser-beam, bar-down strike from the slot for his team-leading 16th of the season. That came at 9:34 of the first to slice into the host’s 2-0 lead. Junior Jake Crockford then connected top shelf from the top of the right circle on a power play at 13:24 to tie the score.

Crockford, who has been heating up of late, is now second on the team in goals scored with seven, netting five those over the past week alone.

Senior defenseman Wyatt Scott had assists on both Kingsford scores.

Mosinee held a 34-21 edge in shots on goal, peppering Kingsford senior goaltender Brett Berglund with 16 in the first another 13 in the third after being limited to just five shots by the Flivvers in the second frame.

Kingsford managed nine shots in the final frame, but couldn’t break through again against Mosinee junior goalie Aiden Karst.

The Flivvers committed only two penalties to Mosinee’s seven, yet could only cash in once with the man-advantage with Crockford’s tally in the first.

Senior defenseman Gavin Obremski staked Mosinee to its early 2-0 lead. He scored in the game’s opening minute and added another at 3:27. Sophomore Tyler Baars put the Indians ahead for good at 2:21 of the third. Senior Grant Kuklinski made 4-2 at 3:24 and junior Elliot Yirkovsky provided the final goal at 6:32.

Kingsford stays on the road next week, returning to conference play with games at Manistique (6-6-0) on Tuesday and at Jeffers (8-5-1) on Thursday. The Flivvers have seven games remaining on the regular season schedule.