Raiders happy to be done with Hodags, outlast the Hawks 6-4
MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY
The third meeting of the hockey season between Medford and Rhinelander didn’t go much differently than the first two Tuesday with the host Hodags skating easy with an easy 12-1 win over the Raiders in the opening round of the Great Northern Conference tournament.
Finn Tulowitzky and Leo Losch both notched hat tricks for the second-seeded Hodags, who improved to 15-5 overall and advanced to a GNC semifinal matchup against third-seeded Mosinee, who they will host on Tuesday, Feb. 8.
The seventh-seeded Raiders fell to 6-12 and will travel to sixth-seeded Tomahawk on Tuesday for a consolation semifi nal. Mosinee beat Tomahawk 9-2 Tuesday.
The Hodags, who beat Medford 14-3 and 9-0 in a four-day span just over two weeks ago, jumped ahead 4-0 in the first period and built a 7-0 advantage by time Raider Brayden Machon got the puck past Hodag goalie Garrett Kulhanek for a power play goal with 1:16 left in the second period. He was assisted by Miles Searles and Noah Machon.
That was one of just eight shots Medford put on goal in the game. Rhinelander put 50 shots on Raider goalie Ben Brunner, who stopped 38 of them.
Layne Roeser got Rhinelander on the board 3:28 into the first period, Tulowitzky got his first goal at 6:44, Joey Belanger made it 3-0 at 8:42 and Losch got the fourth goal on a power play at 14:23.
AJ Turek (4:50), Tulowitzky (7:31) and Losch (11:55) scored Rhinelander’s second- period goals. The Hodags didn’t let up in the third, getting a power-play goal from Belanger at 2:13, Tulowitzky’s third goal at 4:30, a power-play goal by Losch at 5:54 and scores from Turek at 7:36 and Carter Detienne at 14:57.
The Hodags were three for three on power plays, while Medford was one for three. Belanger had five assists for the Hodags, while Cal Laggis had four.
Top-seeded Lakeland beat eighth-seeded Northland Pines 6-1 and fifth-seeded Waupaca pulled a mild upset, beating fourth-seeded Antigo 4-2. The Comets will play at Lakeland Tuesday in a semifi nal, while Antigo will host Northland Pines in the other consolation semifinal.
Medford gets one last game at the Simek Recreation Center tonight, Thursday, when it hosts the Chequamegon Coop at 7 p.m. in a game that was pushed back a week. The Raiders beat Chequamegon 5-4 in overtime for its first win of the season back on Nov. 23.
Medford 6, Shawano 4
At the Simek Center Saturday evening, the Medford scored three quick goals and then traded goals from there to defeat the Shawano Co-op 6-4 and com- plete a season sweep of the Hawks.
Brayden Machon scored two of the early goals, while Cameron Bull had the other and had three assists in the game. Second-liners Noah Machon and Jake Noland each put in key insurance goals in the latter stages and Miles Searles scored early in the second period to slow some momentum the Hawks built late in the first.
The Raiders had a lopsided 52-22 edge in shots and let multiple quality scoring chances get away, but enough pucks found the net for the Raiders to earn their sixth win of the season.
“In this game they played much better than they did in Shawano,” Medford head coach Galen Searles said of his team. “We won 4-0 there. Puck control was better, we controlled the puck most of the time. Passing was better. Our big guns, Connor and Brayden kept missing the net. But their goalie (Dylan Prochaska) is strong. He made some really solid saves.”
It was all Medford early. Just 27 seconds in, Miles Searles won a face-off, directing the puck to Brayden Machon for a one-timer from the slot for the first goal. Not long after that, at 2:12, Machon was denied by Prochaska on a breakaway, but he got the puck back on the rebound and hit the trailing Bull, who buried his shot for a 2-0 lead. Machon got his second goal of the night by deflecting a Colbe Bull blast from the blue line at 7:38. Searles was also credited with an assist, winning the face-off and getting the puck to Bull.
The Hawks got on the board at 10:04 when Blake Knope got around a couple of Raiders before beating goalie Ben Brunner over his glove-side left shoulder. Sam Arneson had the assist. Shawano needed only 10 seconds to take advantage of Medford’s first penalty of the day, getting a Louis Hrabik goal at 13:47 off an Jacob Davids assist.
“That was a momentum changer,” Searles said of Knope’s goal. “From that point they had momentum and we were on our heels. We started that period scoring on the first shift and we had the momentum that stretch. Same thing happened in the second period, we scored on the first shift and we had the momentum.”
Searles got a short-side rebound goal off a Cameron Bull shot 33 seconds into the second period to put Medford up 4-2, but that was answered by a Noah Davids goal at 5:58.
It was Medford’s turn to get a powerplay goal at 11:01. It took nearly the whole time to take advantage of a four-minute double minor on Hrabik, but after some heavy pressure, Noah Machon was finally able to get a wide-open tap-in with assists credited to Brayden Machon and Cameron Bull.
Noland’s goal 3:45 into the third period gave Medford its three-goal cushion back. He deflected a Cameron Bull blast past Prochaska. Shawano got a powerplay goal from Noah Davids at 11:04, just four seconds into the power play, to cap the scoring.
“Jake’s goal, that’s something that we practice –– getting in front of the net and tipping,” coach Searles said. “He’s actually one of the best ones at it in practice. He got his stick down there and delivered it perfectly.”
Brunner had 18 saves for Medford, while Prochaska finished with 46 for the Hawks.
Brayden Machon gets into position in front of the net, while Miles Searles tries to push the puck to him during the first period of Medford’s 6-4 win over the Shawano Co-op Saturday at the Simek Center. Machon had two early goals in the win.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
