Third-period woes bite Hodag hockey again vs. Waupaca

For the second time in four days the Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey game was in a tight hockey game in the third period right up until the point that it wasn’t.

Waupaca scored three times on a major power play late in the third and rode past the Hodags 7-2 Friday night at the Rhinelander Ice Arena. 

The Hodags trailed 3-1 and had a bit of momentum following a Zach Edyvean power play goal with 7:46 left in regulation, but leading scorer Joey Belanger was assessed a checking from behind major shortly thereafter and the Comets responded to put the game away. 

It marked the second straight game that Rhinelander (2-4-0, 0-2-0-0 Great Northern) has allowed four goals in the final seven minutes of regulation. The Hodags were tied with Pacelli 3-3 in the third last Tuesday before watching things unravel in a 7-4 loss. 

“It certainly wasn’t a 7-2 game,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. “It was 3-1 with five minutes left and we had momentum and the bottom line is when you take bad penalties at bad moments it falls on one person and one person only and that’s the head coach. It doesn’t matter who did it, how they did it. It doesn’t matter how much you try to coach kids in or out of that. At the end of the day, it falls on the head coach and we’re going be done talking to officials and we’re going to be done taking needless penalties. We’re going to get that figured out.”

Ryan Mace recorded a hat trick for the Comets (7-2-0, 2-0-0 Great Northern), including a pair of goals late in the first period that staked Waupaca to the lead. Mace got behind the Hodag defense on a fly play and scored on a breakaway chance at the 14:29 mark in the first period and then scored off a rebound on a 5-on-3 power play with 51 seconds remaining in the period after Belanger and top defenseman Dalton Fritz had taken separate minors 22 seconds apart.

“We need our best guys on the ice to have a chance to win. That speaks for itself. We’ve got to clean it up,” Laggis said as his team was penalized six times for 15 minutes on Friday.

Overall, Laggis called it a shaky start for his team, which was unable to generate many opportunities on a major power play chance early in the first and was outshot 12-3 through the opening 17 minutes. 

“The bottom line is we gave up two goals and maybe could have given up more, but I thought we played shaky,” he said. “We had a good talk about some things we were trying to clean up at the end of the period. I thought the second we played a lot stronger. We did give up a goal but we played stronger.”

That goal came midway through the second and Adam Mace caught a pass at the red line, split the Hodag defense and scored in an unabated rush on goalie Tyler Kimmerling. It was the only blemish in a much more even period.

Rhinelander took advantage of a Waupaca tripping goal midway through the third as Gavin Denis found Edyvean for a one-timer off the right faceoff dot.

“That created a lot of momentum right there,” Laggis said. “Then we had a shift where we were blistering right after that. We could have scored that second goal and made it 3-2. That puck was laying out there in front and that didn’t happen.”

For Edyvean, who recently moved back to the blue line in an effort to stabilize a young defensive core, it was his first goal of the season. Denis tallied his fourth assist. Seven of his eight points on the season have come with Rhinelander on the power play.

“We asked Zach to go back and play D, completely unselfish. He’s gone back there and played D. It’s a work in progress but he’s very athletic, he’s a big body and he’s going to grow into that position,” Laggis noted. “We’re thin up front and we’re young but if we had every guy up front playing like Gavin Denis does up and down the ice, we’d make a lot more happen … Gavin didn’t get on the scoresheet with a goal, but I’ll tell you he works, down four or up two you wouldn’t know. He works just as hard every shift.” 

Adam Mace scored Waupaca’s first goal on the late power play, followed by a shot from the blue line by Isaac Abhold that found its way in through trading. Ryan Mace completed his hat trick at the 13:51 mark as the Comets scored three times in a 2-minute, 7-second stretch to balloon the lead to 6-1. 

Hodag senior defenseman Dalton Fritz took advantage of a Waupaca turnover right in front of the Comets’ net to score short-handed with 2:50 remaining. Dylan Smith rounded out the scoring for Waupaca, finishing a 3-on-2 chance with nine seconds to play. 

The Hodags were outshot 32-18 in the contest. Kimmerling made 25 saves in defeat. Overall, Laggis chalked it up to another learning experience for a young team trying to find its way. 

“Young teams make those mistakes and you’ve just got to keep coaching them and work through it,” he said.

The Hodags are home again this Thursday to take on the Northland Pines Eagles. After going decades without beating Pines, Rhinelander has won five straight against its neighbors to the north.

“We’ve been taking care of them the last five games but, the bottom line is any hockey game we’re in right now, our goal is to keep that thing as close as we can and try to find a way,” Laggis said. “Pines will bring everything but the kitchen sink at us. I’m in the mode right now where it’s not even so much being worried about the opponent, it’s worried about how we’re going to grow and improve.”

The Hodag boys’ hockey team will be conducting its annual Kindness for Kids toy drive in conjunction with the event. Fans are asked to bring a new, unwrapped toy to the rink on Thursday. Items collected will be donated to Kindness for Kids, a local organization that delivers gifts to less fortunate families in the area during the holidays. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].