Wednesday afternoon’s hockey tilt between Utica-Fraser Unified and Anchor Bay at Big Boy Arena was decided as much between the ears as it was the boards.

After going up 1-0 early in the first period, Utica-Fraser surrendered five goals in an 11-minute span, and though they buried two of their own in that span, a lead quickly became a two-goal deficit early in the second period.

But they persisted, tying the game with 2:22 left in the second, then an early third goal by Landen Tilney put Utica-Fraser ahead, 6-5, and a replacement effort by keeper Eli Chodun helped keep the Tars off the board in the last 31 minutes en route to a Unified win.

“So far this season, we’ve had a really bad response when we get down, and today was one of the first times that we’ve really had a good push back,” said Utica-Fraser head coach Evan Gizinski.

Utica-Fraser’s AJ Gorgievski opened the scoring 3.5 minutes in, and Anchor Bay responded at 7:38 with a goal by Tayden Jones — his first of two — to tie the game.

But just 26 seconds later, UFU bounced back with a strike by Niko Lajb — a goal that ended up being nullified in another 72 seconds when Anchor Bay’s Austin Lindsey re-tied the game.

Goals by UFU’s Ashtin Fertik and AB’s Jones sent the game tied, 3-3, into the first intermission.

The Tars set the ice on fire out of the break; a goal by Kaden Leigh at 15:50 and another by Jayden Provencher 18 seconds later gave Anchor Bay a two-goal advantage and wrapped a stretch in which they scored thrice in just over three minutes.

But Utica-Fraser (4-5) decided that enough was enough.

“We’re just fed up with constantly giving into that mentality of, once we go down, it just keeps going, right?” Gizinski said. “So I think it was just the decision that the players made that we’re done with this, and it’s time to start playing some real hockey.”

Landen Tilney (7:18) and Lajb (2:22) got Utica-Fraser back to even by the end of the second period, and Tilney’s goal at 13:40 put them back ahead for the first time since the first period.

All three goals were during power plays.

“Now that we know that we can do it, I think it gives everybody a little bit more belief that, hey, even if we get down, we’re able to get out of it and come back and still be the winner,” Gizinski said.

The change wasn’t only offensive — early in the second period, Gizinski swapped goalie Andrew Boice for Eli Chodun. The junior’s clean sheet plus zero UFU penalties in the last 27 minutes of the game helped keep them within striking distance.

“We needed someone to go in there and give the rest of the team some comfort,” Gizinski said. “And I think he (Chodun) did a really good job of that. He’s someone that has kept us in a lot of games over the last season. And, yeah, he’s our rock back there. So we know when he’s playing well that we have a good chance of winning.”

While one team’s mental state progressed past a barrier, the other’s regressed.

“The conversation that needs to be had is, what are they on the ice for?” Anchor Bay head coach Joe Zuccaro said. “Like, what are you doing? Are you on the ice for you to score? Like, oh, yeah, I need to be on the ice to score. I need to have more shifts. I need that. You’ll notice, all those things start with an ‘I’, right? It’s got to be ‘we’, and when we are not doing that, it’s a lot of selfish play on the ice, and it is hurting us.”

Zuccaro said that he thought that the Tars, now 1-6-1, had buried their bad habits before Wednesday’s game.

“We can control energy, control enthusiasm and we have none of that right now,” Zuccaro said. “We have spurts that you saw today, and then when they’re not there, then it doesn’t happen. Coaches can only say so many rally and rah rah speeches until they eventually look into themselves.”

Utica-Fraser’s Tilney, who scored twice, including the game-winner, also had two assists. Fertnik and Gorgiveski each had two assists of their own.

Alex Carlisi and Antonio Carlisi also had helpers.

Anchor Bay assists went to Andrew McCabe, Noah Blenkhorn, Leigh, Cade Carr, Justin Spina and Easton Verbeke.