Photo by Jake Przytarski Marshall’s Blake Kruse controls the puck during Saturday’s game against Hutchinson. The Marshall Tigers lost to Hutch 3-1.

MARSHALL – The Marshall boys hockey team’s streak of avoiding consecutive losses dating all the way back to the 2017-2018 season was snapped on Saturday after a disappointing 3-1 defeat at the hands of Hutchinson at Red Baron Arena.

Though the team has hit a rough patch early on this season, assistant coach Scott Mellenthin is confident in what the group can accomplish moving forward.

“We’re just trying to get our rhythm going,” said Mellenthin. “You see some glimpses of some good things that we’re starting to do, and then it just kind of gets away from us. So the biggest thing is we just have to stick together and (continue) working on the team concepts right now. We’ve got a lot of guys who’ve played a lot of good hockey. We know we have a good team in the locker room, it’s just going to be a matter of settling in and realizing that it takes hard work for 51 minutes every night.”

The Tigers were unable to get off to the kind of start they were hoping for in the first period of Saturday’s contest as defensive turnovers created numerous odd-man rush opportunities for Hutch which forced goaltender Dominik Caspers to be at his best. Equal to the task, Caspers faced nine shots in the period and stopped them all to keep the game scoreless into the first intermission.

Mellentin credited Caspers for continually lifting the team with his stellar play and keeping them in games in spite of inconsistent play in front of him.

“We are very fortunate that we have an outstanding goalie who is playing at a top-level right now,” said Mellenthin. “He’s kept us in these games. We’ve basically been in these games right down to the wire because of him. He has allowed us to make mistakes up front defensively and he still hasn’t allowed pucks in the net, so the game has stayed close even though we haven’t been really happy about how we’ve played.”

Mellenthin went on to praise his leadership qualities on and off the ice.

“He’s someone who is a leader in there, not only vocally but also on the ice,” said Mellenthin. “He’s someone that just does his job every night to a high level and it’s an example that a lot of our other guys have to start following.”

When play continued for the second period, the ice remained tilted in the opposition’s favor as Hutch generated additional scoring chances on the power play. With blocked shots and more saves by Caspers, Marshall was able to kill of the penalty and extended its streak of successful kills to 13, which dates back to the first game of the season against Albert Lea.

Unfortunately, Marshall was unable to enjoy the same level of success at even strength as Hutch was rewarded for its constant pressure in Marshall’s defensive zone with a goal at the 7:18 mark of the period by Austin Jozwick. Marshall responded with a late push but was unable to break through and remained trailing by a goal into the final intermission.

In the third period, Marshall appeared destined to get on the board with more sustained pressure around Hutch’s net, but a back-breaking goal by Logan Holtz seven minutes in momentarily halted the building momentum and extended the visiting Tigers lead to 2-0.

Junior Tristan VanDeVere provided a glimmer of hope for a comeback two minutes later with the team’s first goal to cut the deficit back to one, but an empty netter within the final two minutes of play sealed Marshall’s fate in a 3-1 loss.

The Tigers (3-3) will be back on their home ice on Tuesday with a game against Windom at 7 p.m. Mellenthin is hopeful that the team can get back on track in their upcoming games.

“The biggest thing that we try to do was just remain positive and try to get them doing things that we know we can do,” said Mellenthin. “It didn’t work out today, but we’ll get back at it on Monday and make it work Tuesday night. We got a couple big games coming up this week. It’s going to be a huge week for us. Three important games that we have to get back to our game. We have a senior laden club this year that has been through a lot of stuff and we’re just hoping that the leadership in there takes over and gets us back on track because we know we have the guys.”