Kingsford senior Cooper Pigeon fires a shot on net as freshman teammate Wyatt Lucas and Lakeland senior Joe Vizanko look on during Tuesday's game. (Ron Deuter photo)

MINOCQUA, Wis. — Five games, four different rinks, two states, including a long trip to the metro Detroit area, all in a week’s time.

That’s the grueling adventure the Kingsford varsity hockey team has living this week, and the boys have more than answered the call opening the stretch with three straight dominating wins. But some fatigue finally showed Tuesday evening against Lakeland, as the Flivvers had to settle for a 2-2 overtime tie against the Thunderbirds in a non-conference match-up at the Lakeland Ice Arena.

Kingsford handled the Thunderbirds 7-3 back in early December, but the legs just weren’t there Tuesday.

“Yeah, we were gassed for sure and it showed,” Flivvers head coach Greg Wadge said. “It wasn’t our best effort and we definitely lacked some intensity, but the boys never stopped battling. We were happy to come away with the tie and hope the day off Wednesday will recharge our boys for Negaunee.”

The Flivvers, now 9-10-1 on the season, travel to face the Miners tonight in a rubber match of a three-game regular season series. Kingsford won the first meeting 4-1 on Nov. 21, but the Miners edged the Flivvers 6-5 on Dec. 9 when Kingsford was buried in a miserable five-game losing streak.

Yesterday’s off day should help the group as they set their sights on extending their season-best unbeaten streak to five games against the Miners tonight.

Against Lakeland Tuesday night, Kingsford was unable to hold a lead twice, the second time coming with just around eight minutes to play in the game.

The first period went scoreless before senior captain Gavin Moore rifled in an unassisted goal from the high slot to make 1-0 Flivvers early in the second period. But Lakeland responded with the equalizer later in the frame from senior CJ Smith.

The Flivvers regained the lead early in the third on a powerplay when sophomore Jack Spreen slid a pass to the point for sophomore defenseman Seth Greenleaf, who took a few strides off the boards to his left and ripped a shot through traffic and into the back of the net at 13:55.

But again the lead disappeared, as Lakeland sophomore Landon Van Berkel swatted in a rebound at 8:39 to tie the game at two. Kingsford outshot Lakeland 16-5 in the final frame, but couldn’t jump back out in front.

As the game went into seven minute overtime, senior Jaxon Buckley nearly ended it early in the extra session with a shot that clanked off a post, but that’s as close as Kingsford came to scoring.

The finish to the game wasn’t without a bit of controversy with a five-minute cross-checking major called on junior Will Murvich near the end of OT that gave Lakeland a man advantage for the final push. Controversial because for the final several minutes of regulation and into overtime, the refs had pretty much swallowed their whistles and allowed the teams to battle hard for the win. As a result, the play became very physical with several hits and takedowns that could easily have been called for penalties, yet the Murvich offense was the only one whistled.

After the OT ended without a score, both benches briefly discussed possibly playing another overtime but with 3-on-3 action, but that idea was ultimately scrapped, which Kingsford was more than OK with considering a second OT would have been played a man down due to the Murvich major penalty.

Following tonight’s contest at Negaunee, the Flivvers are down to four games left in the regular season. They return home on Feb. 4 to host Jeffers.