January 30, 2019 at 12:44 p.m.
Northern Edge skates past Medford 6-0
Northern Edge skates past Medford 6-0
Monday night, however, the Northern Edge made it look easy.
Jade Forster, Emily Kassler and Madi Losch scored two goals each and the Edge blanked Medford 6-0 at the Simek Center.
The win was just Rhinelander/Antigo's third of the season - all against Medford. Monday night's game was the most lopsided of the bunch as Medford played without its leading scorer, Emily Schafer.
"It's a good win. We needed it. We haven't had one in a while. We have a really tough stretch of games coming up," Northern Edge coach Tom Roeser said.
It took awhile for the Edge to figure out Raider goalie Alex Nicks, but the goals started coming late in the contest as Rhinelander/Antigo outshot Medford 55-20. The Edge scored once in the first, twice in the second and three times in the third period.
"We started slow, but we were putting pucks on net, which was our goal tonight," Roeser said. "We put quite a few pucks to the net. Unfortunately, we struggled shooting them around that goaltender until the end of the game, but (Nicks) did a good job and ate up a lot of rebounds. We wanted to get some rebounds but she took care of those pretty well."
The Edge cashed in on a couple of rebounds Nicks was not able to handle. Forster got the Edge on the board 10:24 into the first as she poked a rebound of a Kassler shot away from Nicks.
Kassler made it 2-0 8:31 into the second when Madi Losch played a puck high off the glass, sending Kassler on a fly play. Nicks came out of her crease to cover, but bobbled the puck and Kassler was able to flip it past her to double the lead.
Forster added to the lead at the 11:17 mark of the second, scoring on a one-timer in the slot off a faceoff win by Lauren Kefalinos.
The Edge put the game away in the third. Kassler scored from the point, 6:12 into the period and Losch scored a pair of top-shelf goals at 9:02 and 12:51.
"That's good because those three need to be putting pucks in the net, and there were a lot of assists on those plays, which I was happy about," Roeser said. "There were a couple of rebounds. If we're passing the puck, catching the puck and burying pucks, that's what we need to do. I was happy we had a lot of assists on those plays."
Roeser said he was also happy that the team did not let its guard down just because Schafer - Medford's best offensive weapon - was scratched from the lineup.
"She's such a big part of their team and it was unfortunate that she wasn't able to play tonight," Roeser said. "That being said, a lot of teams can come out and get complacent and we didn't. We still went after it. That's what we focused on. We knew we had to because Medford always works hard."
Alicia Turunen made 20 saves and recorded her first shutout of the season for the Edge, which improved to 3-9-0 overall and 3-5-0 in the Great Northern Conference.
The Edge has not had many games over the last couple of weeks and Roeser said the team has put the additional practice time to good use.
"We've had some good practices. We started catching passes in practice and started incorporating in some more systems," he said. "For a while it was just skills, skills, skills. Now that we're catching passes, we can work on some things that we need to try to outsmart some teams coming down the stretch here."
It will be a busy stretch run for the Edge, which is idle the rest of the week, but will play four times next week ahead of the WIAA playoffs, which kick off Feb. 14. The Edge hosts Lakeland at the Rhinelander Ice Arena Monday before hitting the road for three games to close out the regular season. The team travels to Waupaca to take on Wisconsin Valley Union in a make-up of a game postponed back on Jan. 22. Rhinelander/Antigo plays at Arrowhead next Friday night and at the Lakeshore (Cedarburg) co-op next Saturday.
"That's why we're so glad to get this one in tonight because, we either have to stretch this one later into this week or into next week before playoffs," Roeser said. "I don't think that was possible with nine skaters."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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