November 20, 2018 at 1:11 p.m.
Edge hangs on in opener
Rhinelander/Antigo fends off late rally to defeat Medford 4-3
Edge hangs on in opener
The team nearly squandered a three-goal lead but held on to defeat Medford 4-3 Monday night in the season opener at the Langlade County Multi-Purpose Building.
Lauren Kefalinos scored twice and had an assist for the Edge (1-0-0, 1-0-0 Great Northern), and junior goalie Alicia Turunen made 12 of her 27 saves in the third period, as Medford (0-1-0, 0-1-0 Great Northern) ratcheted up the intensity.
"Medford was what I thought they were," said first-year head coach Tom Roeser. "I knew they were going to work hard and we played some selfish hockey, I thought, toward the end and gave up some odd-man rushes. Luckily, Alicia comes through again. She's a very good goalie. We didn't help her at times. We were tipping pucks in front of her. She let everyone know how displeased she was with that."
The Edge clung to a 4-2 lead after killing off a pair of 5-on-3 power plays in the third period, but Medford's Emily Schafer scored her second goal of the night with 2:35 remaining to trim Rhinelander/
Antigo's lead to one.
Schafer nearly forced overtime as well, racing up ice in transition on a 2-on-1 with just more than a minute to play. Turunen denied Schafer's initial breakaway and caught a break when Kyla Kennedy's rebound chance hit off the left goal post.
The Edge retook the puck and the offensive zone moments later and Medford was unable to pull goalie Alex Nicks until the final 30 seconds of the game. Edge defender Madi Losch created a turnover as Medford was skating into the Edge zone and froze the puck in the corner to kill off the final 15 seconds.
It was a win for the Edge, which graduated 40 percent of its roster from last season, but the team made things hard on itself after taking a three-goal lead late in the second period.
"We tried to do too much at times through all three periods," Roeser said. "We're going to get better. We're going to learn to take care of the puck. We're going to learn how to play one goal down and learn to play with a one-goal lead. I think that was the difference, having a younger team. When were up by one, we were playing like we were down by one and you can't do that."
Depth was an issue for a team that started the year with only 12 players on the roster. Two were unable to play Monday night, leaving the team perilously thin with only two lines of forwards and three defenders.
Roeser said the fatigue caused by a short bench was evident as early as the first period, and the Edge's rash of four penalties in the third period may have been a symptom.
"We're going to do some conditioning. We've got to learn to play when we are fatigued because I think that accounted for a couple of those penalties, too," he said. "They've got to realize that I know there's not intent on a lot of these penalties, but they were penalties. Taking care of your stick, not swinging your stick around, is a big deal. We took a couple tripping penalties just because we're not being strong with our stick."
Medford struck first in the contest on a Schafer shot from the slot that beat Turunen top shelf at the 10:47 mark of the first, but the Edge took the lead moments later as Kefalinos and Losch both went end-to-end for a pair of goals 1 minute, 12 seconds apart.
The Edge tacked on two more goals in a short spurt during the second period. Kefalinos backhanded a pass from Evie LeVeque from the bottom of the right circle at the 10:17 mark and sophomore Emily Kassler tipped home a loose puck at the top of the crease to give the Edge a 4-1 lead at the 12:15 mark.
"The goals we did score were hard-working goals. Emily's was nice. She was working in the crease, which was good," Roeser said. "We had some opportunities to make some passes across the crease and score some really pretty goals and we didn't do that. We're going to work on using our teammates more."
Medford cut the lead to two with less than a minute to play in the second as Ryley Koski deflected in a Schafer shot from the slot. The Edge outshot Medford 35-30 in the contest. Nicks made 31 saves in defeat for the Raiders.
The Edge returns to action Dec. 3 at Northland Pines.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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