December 13, 2017 at 2:12 p.m.
Hodag hockey powers past Medford 4-1
Hodag hockey powers past Medford 4-1
The Hodags scored three times on the man-advantage, including twice during a five-minute major power play in the third period, to defeat Medford 4-1 in a Great Northern Conference contest at the Simek Center.
It's the first time the Hodags have started 6-0-0 during coach M.J. Laggis' two decades at the helm, but Laggis said there's still plenty of room for improvement.
"We're off to a great start. That's a positive," he said. "We won a game when we didn't play our best. That's a huge positive. But, overall, we've got to get stronger, faster and moving the puck better. We've gotten out of the gate fast and have played really well but, overall, we talked about it in the locker room tonight, we didn't play that well and we got to play better, no doubt about it."
The Hodag led only 1-0 entering the third period, but seized control moments after a five-minute checking from behind penalty by Medford's Garrett Paul. Cole Spaulding scored from Brandon Kolasa during the extended power play, as did Harlan Wojtusik off helpers from Freddy Wisner and Abe Laggis.
"Brandon just fed Cole right in the middle," M.J. Laggis said. "We went to a box-and-1 (formation) and Cole just put it home, tipped it actually. It was a really nice pass by Brandon and a nice finish by Cole."
Rhinelander also scored on the power play in the first period on an Abe Laggis shot from Danny Zuiker.
"It was a nice pass from Danny Zuiker to Abe and a nice power play goal. It was a great play by Danny. Abe was able to walk right to it and bury it," coach Laggis said.
Despite going 3-for-6 on the power play, Laggis said there's still work to do.
"Three power play goals, it's always a good night when you can do that but - not trying to sound ridiculous with this - but we've really got a lot of work to do on it. Overall, we've got to have more movement on it. We've got to get better on it," he said.
Alex Carstensen pulled Medford within two on a goal midway through the third period, but Wojtusik scored an empty-netter for Rhinelander with 36 seconds remaining to account for the final margin.
Rhinelander outshot Medford 35-11 for the game. Seth Stafford recorded 10 saves in the win for Rhinelander.
The Hodags host Tomahawk on Thursday and travel to Wisconsin Rapids for a non-conference contest Friday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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