January 6, 2020 at 12:51 p.m.
Brookfield gets the bounces, beats RHS 8-3
Brookfield gets the bounces, beats RHS 8-3
Thanks to an unlucky bounce, that's what happened to the Rhinelander High School boys' hockey team on Saturday as it lost to Brookfield 8-3 in a non-conference contest at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.
Already down 5-1 late in the second period, the clearest indication that the hockey gods were not with the Hodags on Saturday came when Brookfield defenseman Braden Kloida attempted to ice the puck from inside his own zone. He rifled the puck along the far boards where it hit referee Lance Litchfield, who was stationed on the boards at the Hodags blue line. The puck caromed right to Brookfield's Devin Rozman, creating a 2-on-1 breakaway chance that Sam Bretzel finished for a goal.
Rhinelander coach M.J. Laggis could only shake his head at the rotten luck.
"Goldarn it, that just stings," he said afterward. "At that point the game was not going our way, I get that, but they played opportunistic. They took advantage of everything that went their way."
The Stars outshot the Hodags 38-27 and twice scored a pair of goals in less than a minute.
Brookfield scored seven unanswered at one point to keep the Hodags (5-7-0, 2-3-0-0 Great Northern) below .500.
"Opportunistic's a great way of putting it because there were numerous times that we had great pressure, passed up on shots that we didn't take and/or hit the pipe and/or they made a great save," Laggis said. "We really had ample opportunities, but it's a situation where we don't capitalize enough in a big game like that against a decent team. Then, on the other end, we give up rebounds, we don't take care of the back door. We don't do the things we know we've got to do and we get scored on."
Max Spaulding, coming off a hat trick for Rhinelander in Thursday night's win over Tomahawk, put Rhinelander on the board first as he redirected a pass from the Conor Pequet along the end line 7:06 into the contest. From there, it was all Brookfield (8-6-0, 2-2-0 Classic 8).
John Templeton got behind the Hodag defense on a breakaway and tied the game at the 8:39 mark of the period and the Stars scored twice late in the frame to take a 3-1 lead.
In a 4-on-4 situation with 1:26 remaining in the period Kloida was stopped by Rhinelander goalie Seth Stafford on a point-blank chance in front of the Hodag net. The rebound trickled just outside the top of the crease, Stafford dove at the puck to cover it, but the puck ended up just beyond Stafford's outstretched glove. Kloida collected the rebound and put it in an empty net to put Brookfield ahead. Rosman added a goal on the power play moments later and the Hodags missed a chance to pull within one in the final seconds of the period as Brookfield goalie Emmett Peters made a diving save to deny a chance by Rhinelander's Leo Losch on the back door.
"The 4-on-4, if I had that to do over again, I would have probably called a timeout and just said settle down. We just went into a panic mode right there and they scored twice," Laggis said. "Above and beyond that, it's in the defensive zone, not getting the back door and taking care of that guy. It's the weak-side wing not helping out in front of the net, or being aggressive enough and it's us letting rebounds lay there. Sometimes we were steering the rebound back into Seth instead of getting at it and getting it out of the zone.
"You've got to make a play and get that puck out of harm's way. We didn't do that and it killed us."
Brookfield scored twice more in a 45-second stretch midway through the second. Sirogg Ibraheem got loose in front of the net and scored at the 7-minute mark and Hayden Kasper scored a short time later on a shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle that beat Stafford glove side.
The teams exchanged goals in the third. Templeton and Jacob Fields scored for Brookfield while Joe Schneider and Pequet had the Rhinelander goals.
Though Rhinelander took only nine fewer shots than Brookfield in the contest, Laggis said the team struggled to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves.
"We didn't get enough to go our way, but something we've got to solve is how many pucks in the first half of the game hit the crossbar, hit the pipe, open net and somehow we don't score, or passing up a golden opportunity in the high-to-mid slot," he said. "We do that a lot. To win those kind of games, you've got to capitalize on that stuff earlier in the game. We have not done that. We're very feast or famine."
Stafford made 25 saves for Rhinelander before checking out after Brookfield's eighth goal.
Garrett Kulhanek played the final 9:29 for Rhinelander, recording four saves. Peters stopped 25 pucks for Brookfield.
Next up, Rhinelander takes on Marshfield in a non-conference game tonight in Marshfield. The Tigers are the lone non-GNC in Rhinelander's Division 2 sectional come WIAA tournament time, giving more significance to tonight's contest.
"That's a seeding spot right there," Laggis said. "We have to regroup Monday. We've got a long bus ride Tuesday. We've got to get off that bus and play our best hockey."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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