January 8, 2018 at 1:39 p.m.
Kingsford wins 6-1, hands Hodag hockey fifth straight loss
Kingsford wins 6-1, hands Hodag hockey fifth straight loss
After a 7-0-0 start, the Hodags are now mired in a losing streak that reached five games Saturday night with a 6-1 loss to Kingsford, Mich. at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.
Rhinelander allowed two goals in each period Saturday. Kingsford dominated the first two periods of play, outshooting Rhinelander 29-4, as the Hodags looked like a shell of the team they were at the start of the season.
"We didn't show up to play," Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said afterward. "We were just running around, throwing the puck away and not playing the body. That's just an honest assessment."
Kingsford's Daunte Fortner recorded a hat trick in the contest and David Brule added a pair of goals for the Flivvers (7-3-0), who controlled the game from the opening drop of the puck.
A Kingsford team that was only 50 percent on the penalty kill on the season entering the contest didn't look like it in the first period. Brule capitalized when Eamonn Weed created a turnover in the Hodag defensive zone for a short-handed tally 8:35 into the opening period. The Flivvers had two other potential breakaway chances in the first while on the kill which resulted in Rhinelander taking penalties that took the Hodags off the power play.
"We work so hard on the power play and, in the first period, do something completely different and give up a shorty. It's inexcusable," Laggis bemoaned.
Nick Saari scored with exactly four minutes remaining in the first period to put Kingsford ahead 2-0. The lead ballooned to 4-0 with goal by Fortner and Brule in the second.
Rhinelander finally dented the scoreboard, with only its fourth shot on goal for the game, when Brandon Kolasa scored from the left faceoff circle on the power play with 1:09 remaining in the second.
"It was a nice play, a nice shot by Brandon," Laggis said. "At that point, you're down 4-1 and you're talking in the locker room about the energy we had there in the last three minutes. (You talk about) getting the next one and making it a two-goal game, which is never a very good lead to have in hockey and we just couldn't sustain it."
The Hodags did generate three shots on goal in the first two minutes of the third, but Fortner scored his second of the night 32 seconds later and finished his hat trick on the power play with 5:01 to play.
Rhinelander was outshot 33-11 in the contest and was left wondering what went wrong following such a promising start to the season.
"For seven games it worked really well and then, all of a sudden, we had some tougher competition with Antigo, with Northland Pines, with these guys tonight and we act like we've never done it before," Laggis said. "I'm befuddled by it. We lost races and we threw the puck around. All of that will be blamed on me, naturally, but the bottom line is we've got to make plays we know we can make and we work on at practice."
Seth Stafford made 27 saves in the loss for Rhinelander.
The Hodags will look to turn things around Thursday night at home against Mosinee. Rhinelander defeated the Indians 6-3 in Mosinee back on Dec. 5, a win that seems like it was decades ago.
"We've got to just back to fundamentals and play better," Laggis said. "That's all I can say. We've got to play better than we did tonight."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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