January 16, 2023 at 8:05 a.m.
Hodags win 2 of 3 to end road trip
RHS bounces back to win Merrill tourney after Mosinee blowout
Hodags win 2 of 3 to end road trip
That defeat came Thursday night as the Hodags fell behind early and never recovered in a 7-2 loss at Mosinee in GNC play. Rhinelander bounced back from the loss, however, by winning its next two games over Medford and Jeffers, Mich. in Merrill over the weekend.
The Hodags blasted Medford 8-1 on Friday before edging Jeffers 4-3 on Saturday. Rhinelander lost to the Jets 6-2 last month in Houghton which, until Thursday night, was the team's lone loss on the year.
"Thursday night was a disaster all the way around. Mosinee played fantastic and we didn't," Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. "The bounce back was really nice. We've used this weekend like that a lot of times to bounce back, show resilience and that's what we have to do."
Mosinee 7, Rhinelander 2
The Hodags got off on the wrong foot Thursday night and never recovered, digging themselves a five-goal hole that proved to be the final margin of defeat.
Mosinee's Caden Schmirler scored three times, all on the power play, while Gavin Obremski added a pair of goals in a result that muddled the GNC race.
Lakeland (5-1-0-0) vaulted back into first place ahead of tonight's showdown in Rhinelander. Rhinelander, Tomahawk and Mosinee all sit tied for second at 3-1-0-0 in the league.
"We got outworked up and down the ice," Laggis said. "We didn't match Mosinee's intensity or their speed, one lick. I don't mean to come off negative, like I'm sure this sounds right now, but that's the facts.
"We didn't match their speed. We didn't match their tempo in any facet of the game. We just weren't able to make adjustments we needed to make. To be able for us to even slightly compete with this team, which we didn't do tonight, our intensity will have to be at a whole other level and we'll absolutely will have to change some systematic stuff."
Things started poorly for the Hodags as Obremski put Mosinee on the board just 40 seconds into the contest, blasting home a shot from just inside the blue line off a faceoff win by Ethan Oatman. Cooper Zastrow made it 2-0 Mosinee on a score from the back door late in the opening period.
Oatman scored 2:10 into the second, and things went from bad to worse from there following a checking from behind major assessed to Rhinelander's Finn Tulowitzky. Schmirler scored on the power play at 5:22. The Mosinee senior scored again at the 10:29 mark shortly after the Hodags were whistled for too many men on the ice.
Rhinelander showed a bit of life on power play goals 1 minute, 3 seconds apart by Layne Roeser and AJ Turek that cut the lead to 5-2, but Obremski answered with his second of the night at the 15:11 mark of the second and Schmirler finished his hat trick with a power play goal at the 2:31 mark of the third to round out the scoring.
"Even at 5-0 we battled hard and scored a couple of goals," Laggis said. "At 5-2 after that AJ Turek goal, you kind of had that sense like, 'Wow, if we can get the next one, maybe we could turn the momentum and make this a hockey game.' But we were just unable to do that."
Mosinee outshot Rhinelander 34-25 in the game. Tyler Kimmerling made 18 saves in two periods before giving way to Johnny Turek, who stopped 9 out of 10 chances in the final frame.
The Hodags were penalized seven items for 25 minutes in the contest. Afterward, Laggis said his team needed to show more resiliency in a hostile environment.
"I'll be honest, do I think those officials did a good job, I don't at all. I don't think they did, but that's not why we lost the hockey game," he said. "We talk all the time in this program about playing through adversity, playing through a bad call, playing through things that go wrong, keeping your head about you and making the next play. It's a constant mantra."
Rhinelander 4, Jeffers 3
Fast forward less than 48 hours later and the Hodags felt a bit better about themselves following back-to-back wins, including a hard-fought triumph over Jeffers.
It wasn't easy against the Jets, who scored four answered goals in the third period to beat Rhinelander in Houghton last month. Jeffers tried to do the same thing on Saturday.
Brit Heinonen recorded a hat trick for the Jets, including a pair of goals 1 minute, 10 seconds apart early in the third period that trimmed Rhinelander's three-goal lead to one.
The Hodags held on, despite the memory of what happened down the stretch at Jeffers, despite playing their third game in less than 48 hours and despite losing forward Joey Belanger late in the third period after picking up his fourth penalty of the game.
"The last five minutes, in general, we played really gritty hockey," Laggis said. "Unfortunate with the four penalties we lost Joey at the end of the game. That's one of your key guys late to win faceoffs and play D-zone. Other guys stepped up and I thought we did a good job."
Ironically, Belanger scored what proved to be the game-winner, putting the Hodags ahead 4-1 on a breakaway chance 1:10 into the third. The Hodags had to hold on after that as Jeffers held a 12-8 shot advantage in the third. Rhinelander killed off two penalties over the final 12 minutes, and survived the final 1:19 after Jeffers pulled goalie Simon Rajala for an extra attacker.
Gavin Denis nearly scored an empty-netter for Rhinelander with just under a minute to play, but the Jets were able to recover and retake the zone. A screened shot by defenseman Kailob Bianco sailed over the crossbar with less the five seconds to play and the Hodags were able to clear the puck away from the corner to secure the win.
"We have a ton of respect for Jeffers," Laggis said. "It wasn't an accident that they beat us up there and they darn near had us here. At 4-2, 4-3, you find out about yourself. At that point, we started making some good plays. We did a little better job of keeping the odd-man rushes in front of us and we played really gritty at the end."
The Hodags led the entire way on Saturday. Roeser scored on the power play 11:14 into the opening period to give Rhinelander the lead. Heinonen tied it for Jeffers on the power play at 6:37 of the second period, scoring off a rebound from Bianco.
Leo Losch put the Hodags back in front with a short-handed tally at 12:36 of the second, intercepting a pass at the blue line and skating in for the breakaway. Losch then set up Denis for a goal to give Rhinelander a 3-1 lead after two periods.
"Leo and Gavin generated a lot of offense. They played really well and I though Zach (Edyvean) complemented them pretty good," Laggis said.
Rhinelander narrowly outshot Jeffers 26-25. Kimmerling made 22 saves in the win.
Rhinelander 8, Medford 1
Rhinelander took out its frustrations from the Mosinee loss Friday night against Medford, pouring eight goals on the Raiders in the first 21 1/2 minutes of the contest.
"We came back from just a horrid night in Mosinee, we came back with a lot of energy against Medford and won a game we should win, but the energy and tempo was really nice," Laggis said. "Putting five home in the first period, we kind of got that game under control."
Denis scored twice fo Rhinelander in the opening stanza. Losch, Cody Everson and Roeser has the other goals as the Hodags led 5-0 after one period.
Goals by Edyvean and Belanger gave Rhinelander a 7-0 advantage at 4:26 in the second. Rhinelander's third line joined the party as sophomore Timber Corouner recorded his first career goal moments later off assists by linemates Levi Forster and Carter Massey.
"Timber got his first career goal and it was a really nice centering pass," Laggis said. "Levi had a good chance at one as well. I think that line needs confidence. We're trying to put them in a little bit of a different forecheck and give them some looks."
Medford's Isaac Schaefer broke up the shutout 3:59 into the third period. Rhinelander outshot Medford 44-10 in the contest and Johnny Turek made 27 saves in the win.
Tough stretch continues
The road doesn't get any easier for the Hodags with three more games this week, beginning with tonight's pivotal GNC showdown against Lakeland - a contest the Hodags must win in regulation to have any shot at the No. 1 seed for the upcoming GNC tournament.
From there, Rhinelander travels to Northland Pines on Thursday for the make-up of a contest that was snowed out Dec. 15 before hosting Kingsford, Mich. at home on Saturday.
"Look at who we're playing down the stretch here. Lakeland's just as fast as they could possibly be and they're good," Laggis said. "Pines is playing fantastic hockey right now. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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