Posted on

MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY - Blizzard’s early goals hold up in 2-1 final; Comets crush Raiders

Blizzard’s early goals hold up in 2-1 final; Comets crush Raiders
Medford’s Mason Harris dumps the puck into the offensive zone as he approaches the blue line during the first period of Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Frederic Co-op. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Blizzard’s early goals hold up in 2-1 final; Comets crush Raiders
Medford’s Mason Harris dumps the puck into the offensive zone as he approaches the blue line during the first period of Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Frederic Co-op. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY

The Medford hockey team kept the Frederic Co-op off the scoreboard for the last 40-plus minutes Tuesday, but the two goals the Blizzard got before that stood as the difference makers in a tight 2-1 battle at the Simek Recreation Center.

Landyn Randt got both of the Blizzard’s goals in the first 10:06 and Lewis Anderson stopped 30 of 31 Medford shots to help their team to escape with their third win of the year. The Blizzard improved to 3-6.

Medford fell to 1-8. “One of our problems is putting together three full periods,” Medford head coach Klayton Kree said. “The guys played really hard the last two. We ended up winning the last two periods 1-0. After the first period we talked about winning each period. Let’s win the second. After we won the second we said let’s win the third to tie it up at least.”

Freshman Kade Wellman got Medford’s goal 6:37 into the second period. Isaac Schaefer’s hard shot from the blue line missed the goal, but it bounced hard off the back board right to Wellman, who was in the right place at the right time and poked it past Anderson.

Anderson stopped 14 third-period shots, most of which came early in the period. The Raiders had two power-play opportunities in the later stages of the period, but the Blizzard tightened up on defense and allowed very little in both of those power plays to reach the net.

“A lot of shots weren’t hitting the net, and if you don’t hit the net you don’t have a chance of scoring,” Kree said. “I called a timeout (at the start of the first power play at 10:11) to rest our guys and get what we call the power unit together to get our better players out there to try to finesse one in. We just couldn’t get something to work.”

Randt put the visitors on the board 3:02 in when he was allowed to skate in from goal tender Talyn Albers’ left side. He somehow snuck his shot through for the unassisted goal. At 10:06, right after the Raiders dodged a bullet on a pointblank shot by the Blizzard, the puck found Randt off a face-off in Medford’s defensive zone and he one-timed it into the net. Braden Nutter and Logan Smestad were credited with the assist.

After that, Medford’s junior goaltender was spot on, finishing with 32 saves.

“He had a shaky first period I thought, but he got his way back into the game and fought off every shot after that,” Kree said. “He stopped a couple breakaways and had a couple other really good saves. He had another game, which was good to see.”

The Raiders get one more game before the holidays, hosting the Shawano Co-op Friday at 7 p.m. in non-conference play.

Waupaca 11, Medford 0

The Raiders didn’t come out playing extremely sharp Thursday and paid for it, giving up five first-period goals en route to an 11-0 Great Northern Conference loss at Waupaca. The Comets outshot Medford 15-3 in the opening period and 41-14 for the game to improve to 3-0 in league play. They hit the holidays sitting in a three-way tie atop the GNC standings with Lakeland and Tomahawk.

Alex Gusmer, Ryan Mace, Jace Moen and Liam Bloedow all scored two goals apiece for Waupaca.

MaceandMoengotgoalsintheopening moments. Bloedow got his goals just over two minutes apart midway through the period to make it 4-0 and Gusmer got his first one with 1:34 left in the period to give the Comets their five-goal lead going into the first intermission.

Three of Waupaca’s last five goals came on power plays. The Comets scored twice in the second period and four times in the third.

Talan Albers had 30 saves for Medford, while Gavin Hafferman got the shutout with 14 saves for the Comets.


Kade Wellman controls the puck in the corner of Medford’s defensive zone during the second period of Tuesday’s loss to the Frederic Co-op. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
LATEST NEWS