March 26, 2018 at 11:34 a.m.
Team review: RHS boys' hockey
Hodags have wild, record-setting season
Team review: RHS boys' hockey
The Hodags finished the year 16-10-0, setting a program record for wins in the process. That's not bad, considering the Hodags were mired in a seven-game losing streak during the middle of the season.
Rhinelander also scored its first playoff victory in four years and it wasn't easy. The Hodags had to rally from down two goals in the third period to achieve it.
Overall, a young Hodag squad broke through this year, going from an 8-to-10 win team to one on the cusp of challenging the upper echelon of the Great Northern Conference.
"We had a great season and I think we're going to see some big things out of this group next year, I really do," coach M.J. Laggis said last week at the team's banquet.
Here are five key storylines from the season.
Hot-cold-hot
Up-and-down is a term oft-used to describe inconsistent seasons. The Hodags exemplified that term this year.
Rhinelander started the season on a seven-game winning streak, then dropped its next seven games before winning 8 of 10 to close out the regular season.
The Hodags had a couple of thrillers early in the season, including a 4-3 win at Waupaca capped off by a game-winner from sophomore defenseman Danny Zuiker with just over three minutes to play in regulation.
But Zuiker and senior forward Cole Spaulding were both injured Dec. 14 in a 6-0 win over Tomahawk, right before the Hodags entered the toughest portion of their schedule.
The Hodags dropped their first game the next night at Wisconsin Rapids, and six more after that in a tough stretch that included three games against eventual GNC co-champs Northland Pines and Antigo.
"That was an emotional deal when Danny and Cole got hurt in that Tomahawk game. I knew the games we were going into and I knew how difficult it was going to be without those two," Laggis said.
Spaulding missed three games while Zuiker missed all seven games of the Hodags' swoon. When Zuiker returned, coincidentally, so did the wins. Rhinelander eventually broke the team record for wins in a season Feb. 8 at home against East/Merrill.
Playoff thriller
Rhinelander's rough patch during the middle of the season was a test in handling adversity - something that came in handy when the Hodags hosted Mosinee in a WIAA regional semifinal Feb. 13.
In the blink of an eye the Hodags fell behind, trailing 2-0 less than two minutes into the contest.
Rhinelander rallied to tie it in the second period, but Mosinee answered with two more goals to take a 4-2 lead early in the third.
Undaunted, the Hodags fought back. Sophomore Abe Laggis, M.J.'s son, scored with 9:12 remaining in regulation and freshman Harlan Wojtusik tied it on the power play with 3:53 left in the third.
The Hodags eventually forced overtime and - just as he did early in the season - Zuiker provided the heroics, burying a shot from the top of the circles with 2:07 remaining in the first extra session for the overtime triumph.
"We've battled a lot of adversity this year," coach Laggis said. "To come from behind twice in that game sums up a lot of what we worked on. That was win No. 16 for us and that's huge. I'm proud of the kids."
Playoff killer
Any momentum from that playoff win was squashed by Northland Pines two nights later - in 13 minutes, 59 seconds to be exact.
That's how much game time it took for the Eagles to amass a 6-0 lead on the Hodags and evoke the running clock rule en route to a 10-0 rout.
Coach Laggis said he was practically speechless following the Eagles' first-period blitz, which marked a sour end to an otherwise positive season for the Hodags.
Lesson learned: While the Hodags have improved, they have not reached the level of the conference's elite just yet.
"You got to learn how to play in big games and you've got to learn how to get over the mystique of playing Northland Pines in Eagle River," Laggis said afterward. "Obviously, we didn't. It's going to take a lot of hours of me thinking and scratching my head because, again, I just thought we were ready."
Young guns
Though the Hodags certainly had their senior leaders - Spaulding had 12 points on the season including four power play goals and Matthias Schneider was a stalwart along the blue line - much of the heavy lifting for this year's team was done by players who are slated to return next year.
All four of Rhinelander's double-digit goal scorers - Freddy Wisner (17), Wojtusik (15), Abe Laggis (12) and Bridger Flory (11) - will be back. Zuiker, who won the team's Blue Line Award as the team's top defenseman, will also return along with goalie Seth Stafford.
Stafford saw a major uptick in wins this season, going from five last year to 16 this year and a slight improvement in goals against average (3.66 to 3.25) despite having his save percentage drop to .850 from .859 as a freshman.
What's next
Many of Rhinelander's key players will be juniors and seniors next year. That, coupled with a solid pipeline of players forming from the bantam and peewee ranks, appears to have the Hodags poised for a sustained run of success.
A change in the conference format next year will afford the Hodags a few more non-conference games and at last Tuesday's banquet Laggis said the team would take that opportunity to strengthen its schedule.
"We have a lot of good kids in this program. We have a good summer plan. Next year one of the goals that we have is to upgrade our schedule a little bit," he said. "We're adding a couple of teams that are maybe a little bit of a higher cut and we're going to challenge ourselves and see how close we can get to instead of winning one playoff game, winning two, winning three playoff games. That's the goal."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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