PETOSKEY — The Petoskey hockey team knows that creating scoring opportunities and using them will be the biggest challenge at the beginning of the season.

In the Petoskey Ice Zone on Friday, it showed up from time to time in the opening season's defeat, because the Northerners could not take advantage of many powerful opportunities and eventually lost the game against L'Anse Creuse Unified 6-4. .

Fortunately for Petoskey, Saturday's meeting against St. Claire Shores Unified provided an opportunity to bring better products to market immediately, and they did not take it lightly.

After Colton Horn’s hat-trick and the two-goal match between Les Sakowski and Chris Kavanaugh, the Northerners won their first victory of the 2021-22 season with a score of 8-3. .

After failing to put the puck in front of L'Anse Creuse's net on Friday, Petoskey coach Rob Higgins saw this change on Saturday.

"The most important thing is shooting," he said. "Our goal was 10 shots per quarter, and in the end we ended up with 46 shots. Adding the games on Friday and Saturday, we did pass our 10 shots, but it was in two games I’m very satisfied with it, but we need to make sure we do it in every game."

After the opening on Saturday, Petoskey led 2-0, then led the third quarter 6-2, before being scored twice by the Normans.

Horn won a hat-trick for himself with three goals, Szalkowski had two assists, his two goals and Kavanaugh also had an assist. Also for Petoskey, Dylan Robinson has a goal and 3 assists, and Jordan Troxel has 3 assists.

Higgins said: "Robinson played a wonderful game, Sarkovsky played a wonderful game, Horn played a wonderful game, Kavanaugh." "I hope all those kids All come forward, come forward. Jordan Troxel, his game is probably one of the most complete games we have seen. He has his own mind in the game, playing and scoring, not just running around and playing. people."

Wyatt Stinger also had two assists, and Tate Wild, Wyatt Stamper and Avery Tim each had one assist.

In terms of scoring, Mason Bird and Joseph Wolfe each had time and made 8 and 7 saves respectively.

On Saturday, Bird and Wolf played on the field. Freshman Gavin Sorkovsky started on Friday. Higgins saw all three goalkeepers during the opening weekend, which is the same as only one on the roster two years ago. The new goalkeeper has made a lot of progress.

"It's very sweet, especially since we have a goalkeeper position who has never played before," he said. "It's great to be able to see these three people on the same weekend, and all three of them are performing."

In the opener against L'Anse Creuse, the first two stages of the game were flat, and Petoskey actually led 1-0 with Robinson's Cavano goal.

Five minutes later, the Crusaders chased the score to 1-1, and Petoskey's Tommy Guiney led the Northerners 2-1 with an assist from Wilder.

After L'Anse Creuse got a ball from the deflection from their own far bench, the period ended 2-2.

Even after Noah Bodka's and Horn's Szalkowski's second goal and Northmen's goal, things still existed, followed by another goal by the Crusaders.

In the third consecutive quarter, Petoskey took the lead to find the scoreboard. Robinson scored after grabbing the ball from the L'Anse Creuse penalty area. A quick shot from the center rewritten the score to 5-4.

However, things started to go south from there, because in the remaining time, the northerners only made two more goals on the net.

"Historically, we have had problems playing a full game," Higgins said. "We have those peaces, and they cost us. We set a goal at the beginning of the game and we made at least 10 shots in each period. We had six in the first quarter and 12 more in the second quarter. We hope to make up some foundation and gain some motivation. Then with 9 minutes left in the third quarter, we didn't shoot a goal."

Higgins did feel that his young freshman goalkeeper performed well in his first game, and Sarkovsky made 24 saves.

"Gavin played great," he said. "It was a great debut for him. He did a great job holding us there. There are also some that are easy to get in. Their first three goals are all deflections or tips."

Petoskey will participate in another game before the Thanksgiving holiday as they will participate in the first Northern Michigan Hockey League game of the season and will meet with Cheboygan on Tuesday, November 23.

Cheboygan will lead 1-2 this season while beating Negaunee for the first time.

"Look forward to Tuesday," Higgins added. "This is always a competitive game. They play very hard. We will be ready and hope to get the best results."

Contact sports editor Drew Kochanny at dkochanny@petoskeynews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @DrewKochanny and Instagram, @drewkochanny