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A win, a loss and a tie for Raiders in three-game stretch

A win, a loss and a tie for  Raiders in three-game stretch A win, a loss and a tie for  Raiders in three-game stretch

MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY

Freshman Jack Rubo recorded a hat trick in the first period and Max Masayeva stopped 22 of the 23 shots he faced as the Lakeland Thunderbirds pulled into a first-place tie with Mosinee in the Great Northern Conference with a 6-1 win over the Medford Raiders Tuesday at the Simek Recreation Center.

Playing without leading scorer Max Toijala, the T-Birds still packed an offensive punch by scoring five goals in the opening period to quickly put it out of reach. The Raiders, who fell to 1-5 in conference play and 4-7-1 overall, didn’t quit and put up a respectable showing. They outshot Lakeland 14-11 over the last two periods.

Lakeland is 5-1 in the GNC and 9-1 overall and finishes GNC round-robin Tuesday with a key matchup at home against 4-1 Northland Pines.

“In the second period, we could’ve easily tied them or beat them in the period,” head coach Galen Searles said of the chances the Raiders were creating. “The one thing I noted in the third period was our passing. I thought it really picked up. In the first two periods, it seemed like we were hanging on to it too long, looking at the guy we were going to pass it to for a second too long. Their D was really good at seeing that, picking it off. We did a better job of not telegraphing our passes.”

Lakeland made the most of its 13 shots on net in the opening period. Just 2:50 in, Tyler Godfrey passed the puck from behind the net to Tyler Gillich, whose shot was stopped by Medford’s Ben Brunner, but Rubo was there to punch in the rebound. At 7:46, Joe Beda slipped one past Brunner on the short side over Brunner’s stick side with assists from Victor Masayesva and River Nicklaus.

Rubo got the next two goals at 11:58 and 13:43. Rubo slapped in a rebound on the first one and he cleaned up right in front on the second. Matt Haggart assisted on both and Nicklaus had the second assist on the goal that made it 4-0.

Beda got his second goal at 14:54 with a Masayesva assist. Medford answered 45 seconds later. Isaac Schaefer centered the puck from the right of the Lakeland net to Austin Stauffer, who deflected it to Connor Gowey. He used a backhand flip to send the puck past the goalie and get the Raiders on the board.

The only goal of the last two periods came on Lakeland’s only power play of the game. Teag Wagner scored 9:46 into the second period, sending the puck through a screen set up in front of Brunner. Thomas McCumber and Beda had the assists.

Brunner made some nice saves as the game progressed and finished with 18.

“In the first five or six minutes of every game, everybody has adrenaline,” Searles said. “If you’re on the receiving end of the storm you just have to weather it and then eventually the game settles down.

“We played with them. That’s what we wanted to do.”

Medford hosts the Chequamegon Coop tonight, Thursday, at 7 p.m. to complete a stretch of five games at home in the last six contests. The Raiders have added a non-conference trip to Rice Lake Saturday. Face-off for that game is at 7 p.m.

Medford will close out the round-robin portion of its GNC schedule Tuesday at Rhinelander.

Medford 3, Viroqua 3

The Raiders jumped out to a 2-0 firstperiod lead Saturday and had a two-toone advantage in shots on goal, but 45 saves from the Viroqua Co-op’s JJ Hertel kept his team in it and a hat trick from Kaden Hansen forced a 3-3 overtime tie.

Stauffer scored twice for Medford and Carter Pernsteiner scored the game’s opening goal. Brunner had 22 saves for Medford, including two in overtime. Hertel stopped eight shots in the extra eight minutes to keep the game tied.

It was Viroqua’s first non-loss in 10 games this season.

“We had a lot of scoring opportunities. We missed the net a lot,” Galen Searles said.

Pernsteiner opened the scoring 10:45 into the first period off a Miles Searles assist. Stauffer scored on an unassisted, short-handed breakaway at 12:52 for a 2-0 lead.

But Hertel collected 16 second-period saves and the Blackhawks pounced on two scoring opportunities to tie it. Hansen worked off assists by Logan Mischler and Brody Steele to score the first one 54 seconds in. At 9:18, Hansen’s unassisted goal tied it.

Stauffer scored off a Schaefer assist 12:04 into the second to give Medford a 3-2 lead. But Hansen scored just 1:09 later with an assist from Mischler to tie it. Neither team scored in the final 21:47 of regulation, sending the game to overtime.

Both teams survived 1:12 of power play time in overtime and there was an overlap of four-on-four hockey for 48 seconds.

Viroqua was unsuccessful in five power- play chances and Medford had three chances go by the wayside.

Medford 12, Tomahawk 2

The Raiders took a step toward assuring they won’t finish in the Great North- ern Conference cellar Thursday with a 12-2 rout of winless Tomahawk at the Simek Center.

Logan Searles led the scoring outburst with three goals and two assists. Miles Searles had three assists. Brayden Machon had two goals and an assist.

Galen Searles said it was nice to see the Raiders passing the puck and spreading out the opportunities. Medford jumped ahead 7-0 in the first period and led 10-0 before the Hatchets put two late goals on the board.

“Unselfish play is what we’re fostering here,” coach Searles said. “The one fun thing about these games is trying to set up some of the kids who don’t get a lot of chances, and the playing time. Everybody got some playing time.”

Nine different Raiders scored goals and there were 12 total assists on the goals.

Defenseman Warryck Leonhardt got it started, poke checking the puck away from a Hatchet and carrying it deep into the offensive zone. He lost it momentarily, but got it back and backhanded it past Hatchet goalie Andrew Samundsen 62 seconds in.

Just 22 seconds later, Stauffer set up Logan Searles for a successful shot from the slot. Kaden Kennedy also had an assist. At 9:53, Miles Searles won a face-off and Pernsteiner centered a pass for Machon. Medford then scored two shorthanded goals on the same Tomahawk power play. Machon got the first one at 12:13 when he and Logan Searles found themselves on a two-on-none breakout after a turnover. Pernsteiner scored at 12:40 low to the glove side off assists from the Searles brothers to make it 5-0.

Schaefer and Colbe Bull added their first goals of the season at 14:19 and 15:44. Schaefer pounced on a puck-handling mistake by Samundsen and Bull whistled in a shot from just inside the blue line.

Medford’s only goal of the second period was a highlight as Stauffer scored off an assist by senior Alex Gilbertson, who notched his first point as a Raider by gaining control of the puck before the Hatchets could clear it and setting up Stauffer for a point-blank shot.

Logan Searles scored twice, while Kennedy and Gowey added goals in the third period.

Brunner had eight saves in net. The Raiders killed off three penalties and were unsuccessful in their only power play. Samundsen finished with 26 saves.


Medford senior Alex Gilbertson gets his stick on the puck while fending off Tomahawk’s Patrick Samundsen (l.) and Benjamin Schertz while trying to keep the deep in Tomahawk’s during the third period of Thursday’s 12-2 Senior Night win.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
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