Hatchets overpower Hodags in GNC opener

The Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team was unable to slow down Tomahawk’s high-powered attack Thursday night in the Great Northern Conference opener.

Caleb Dickens scored six times and the Hatchets routed the Hodags 11-4 at SARA Park. 

Joey Belanger tallied three goals and an assist for Rhinelander (2-2-0, 0-1-0-0 Great Northern), but the Hodags were left playing catch-up from the get go as Tomahawk (3-1-0, 1-0-0-0 Great Northern) scored its first win over Rhinelander since 2016. 

“I’m going to give them credit. They’re absolutely a very skilled team and a strong team, and very good. They’re going to win a lot of hockey games in the next couple of years,” Rhinelander coach M.J. Laggis. “We’re very inexperienced on the defensive side of the puck, just extremely inexperienced. After the game we were talking about moves we could make to try to settle things down back there.” 

Austin Lamer scored the first two goals for Tomahawk, opening the scoring with a short-handed tally at the 2:19 mark and scoring again on a rebound at the 7:40 mark of the first. Belanger responded to tie the game with a pair of goals 36 seconds apart.

    Rhinelander’s Joey Belanger beats Tomahawk goaltender Trevor Saliskar on a penalty shot during the first period of a Great Northern Conference game in Tomahawk Thursday, Nov. 30. Belanger scored three goals for the Hodags in an 11-4 loss to the Hatchets. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The Hodag senior stole the puck at his own blue line and skated in, finishing a breakaway chance at the 9:01 mark. He was slashed on another breakaway chance moments later, resulting in a penalty shot that he slipped past Hatchet goalie Trevor Seliskar on a backhander.

Belanger, who also scored twice in the Hodags’ season opener against Shawano, now has 85 goals in his high school career. 

“Joey was a leader in the locker room all night. He was absolutely a leader on the bench, and he played like he wanted that puck on his stick and wanted to win that game from the very start to the last shift he played,” Laggis said. “I’m very proud of him for that. He earned those three goals. He was very unselfish tonight, all the way around.”

Tomahawk regained the lead late in the first period on Caleb Dickens’s first goal, as he was stationed at the top of the crease for a centering pass from being the end line with 1:54 remaining in the stanza. 

Dickens completed a natural hat trick in the second, scoring on the power play 6:37 in and again on a shot from the right point at the 11:11 mark. 

Belanger completed his hat trick on another end-to-end play at the 12:02 mark, but the Hodags’ momentum was very short-lived. Jonah Dickens won the ensuing center-ice faceoff, skated in and scored just four seconds later and another Caleb Dickens goal made it 7-3 Tomahawk after two periods. 

Caleb Dickens scored twice more for Tomahawk in the third and the Hatchets also got goals from Jonah Dickens and Landyn Seymour over the final 17 minutes. 

Rhinelander rounded out the scoring on defenseman Dalton Fritz’s second goal of the season, coming on the power play with 4:21 to play. 

“It was a nice shot by Dalton. Dalton, right now, is our rock back there at D and we’ve just to find him some help, somehow,” coach Laggis said.

Tomahawk outshot Rhinelander 46-24 in the game. Tyler Kimmerling went the distance, making 35 saves in the loss. 

The scoresheet listed forwards Levi Forster or Van Tulowitzky as scratches for the contest for Rhinelander. Laggis said a team already thin on experience was left to juggle its lines in their absence. 

“One we knew wasn’t going to play and another we found out today wasn’t playing tonight. It’s difficult. I don’t have any other way to put it,” he said. “There’s no continuity. We’re eight or nine minutes into that game, and it’s an absolute yard sale coming off our bench. 

“We’re trying to leave (the top line of) Gavin (Denis) and Joey and Zach (Edyvean) together to have a line that has some punch but, coming out of a power play or a penalty kill and having other guys that aren’t in the lineup that we need in a second-line situation, it’s chaos.”

The Hodags return to action tonight for a non-conference contest at Pacelli. Laggis said the team will likely use the game as an opportunity to experiment with some different line and defensive combinations. 

“We’re going try to make a move with a forward back to D and one of our D to forward, and we’re going to just try to quiet things down in the defensive zone and try to come up with a few different lines that can keep the puck out of our net,” he said. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].