Raiders hang tough until late stages in both games of Baraboo triangular

MEDFORD GIRLS HOCKEY

Medford’s girls hockey team concluded its regular season with a pair of losses Saturday in a triangular tournament hosted by the Baraboo-based Badger Lightning Co-op.

The Raiders were excited about the chance to take on the Lightning, a team of similar ability and depth, in the morning matchup. Though the shots on goal were one-sided, the game itself was competitive well into the third period before the Lightning pulled away for a 5-1 win.

Bella Bowden and Kayla Capener did most of the damage for the hosts. Bowden scored twice and had an assist, while Capener had three assists and scored once for the Lightning, who finished the regular season at 4-11.

The Lightning outshot the Raiders 14-4 in the opening period and took a 2-0 lead. Signe Begalske got them on the board with an unassisted goal 6:54 into the game. Mallory Ruhland got the second goal at 15:21 with assists from Capener and Bowden.

Most of the action continued to take place in Medford’s defensive zone in the next 17 minutes. The Badger team outshot Medford 19-1, but goalie Saige Duesing stopped all 19 of those shots, keeping the Raiders within striking distance.

Capener, however, scored 26 seconds into the third period off a Carson Blosenski assist. The Raiders got back within two at 4:51 when Eryka Seidl scored her fifth goal of the season off an Alyssa Brandner assist. That was Brandner’s first point since her early January return to action following off-season hip surgery.

The two-goal margin stood until the 6:56 mark when Bowden pushed the puck past Duesing following assists from Capener and Ruhland. Capener assisted on Bowden’s second goal, which came with 3:43 left in the game.

Duesing finished with 51 saves, including 21 in the third period. The Lightning’s Kaitlin Elder collected 12 saves while picking up the win in net. Medford played short-handed for much of the third period thanks to three minor penalties, though none of those power plays resulted in a goal. The Raiders had three power-play chances in the second period and five overall. The Lightning had four and did not score on any of them.

The Raiders fell 10-2 to a familiar foe, the Rhinelander-based Northern Edge co-op in game two. Freshman Sophia Brunner scored both of Medford’s goals. The Raiders kept the game close through two periods before fatigue caught up to them in the third and the Edge pumped in six goals to break it open.

Brunner’s first goal came with 1:01 left in the first period off assists by Seidl and Jaylin Machon. It cut the Edge’s lead to 2-1. The Edge got goals from Kate Vizanko at 4:46 and Isabelle Boyer at 9:56. Another Vizanko goal 47 seconds after Brunner’s goal made it 3-1.

Despite being outshot 17-1 in the second period, the Raiders went into the second intermission only down 4-1. Vizanko completed her hat trick at the 14:13 mark.

But the Edge scored three goals in a span of 82 seconds early in the third before Brunner scored an unassisted goal at 9:29 to make it 7-2. MacKenzie Wissbroecker, Callie Johnson and Wyndi Saari scored in the late stages of the period for the Northern Edge.

Duesing piled up another 47 saves, while Hannah Mueller made just five saves for the Northern Edge. Medford had no power plays. The Northern Edge (4-12) was one for two. Three of the Edge’s four wins have come against Medford.

The Lightning beat the Edge 7-1 to win the triangular.

The sixth-seeded Raiders will visit third-seeded Northland Pines (8-7-2) Friday at 5 p.m in a WIAA regional final, weather permitting. The winner will head to D.C. Everest Tuesday to play the second-seeded Central Wisconsin Storm (11-5) in a sectional semifinal.

Sabers 10, Raiders 0

A fast-skating, precision-passing Chippewa Falls-Menomonie squad scored six goals in the first 18 minutes and coasted from there to a 10-0 win over Medford Thursday in the Raiders’ home finale for 2020-21 at the Simek Recreation Center.

The Sabers, who improved to 8-5-1 at the time, came into the game on the honorable mention list of wisconsinprephockey. net’s state ranking list and having just beaten third-ranked Hudson 6-2 three days prior. Their roll continued against the overmatched Raiders.

Medford hung tough in the early going with Duesing getting clean looks at all but one of the Sabers’ first 20 shots and swatting them away. She had no chance on Ella Ausman’s goal 3:38 in as Ausman was able to skate right to the post on Duesing’s right, where she took a perfect pass from Kendall Rudiger and tapped it in.

But the avalanche of shots and puck time in Medford’s defensive zone started taking its toll at the 10:07 mark. Sidney Polzin snuck one through the five-hole to make it 2-0. Just 46 seconds later, Madelyn Hebert scored off an assist from behind the net by Alexa Wickland. At 12:14, Ausman’s wrist shot beat Duesing glove side. Paige Steinmetz had the assist. Emma- Lyn Stephenson scored off a Brianna Buonincontro assist at 13:10.

“We got nervous and got out of position,” Medford co-head coach Scott Brandner said. “Once we got out of position, they were there to put the puck in. Once we went back into our positions, we played it just perfectly and did just fine.”

The Raiders killed off a Sabers’ power play to end the first period, but the visitors put the running clock into effect just 44 seconds into the second period with Polzin scoring off a Kasandra Herr assist. It stayed 6-0 through the remainder of the period.

Chippewa Falls-Menomonie started scoring again in the third. At 1:43 the puck took a bad bounce right over Duesing’s stick on a goal by Steinmetz, which was assisted by Mya Post. Ashley Anderson’s shot at 3:35 trickled through Duesing’s legs and just barely snuck inside the post. Alyssa Herr was credited with that assist. Anderson scored a tough goal at 10:08, pushing in the puck as she was falling down while going for a rebound. Ausman got that assist. Rudiger flipped in a nice back-handed shot at 12:12.

After being limited to one shot on goal in the first period and one scoring chance in the second period on a shot by Skylier Krueger that went wide, the Raiders did create a little more action on the offensive end in the third and put four shots on goal for a game total of five. Caroline O’Dell got the shutout in net for the Sabers.

Duesing finished with 42 saves, 26 of which came in the opening period.