March 8, 2023 at 1:08 p.m.
Hodag Squirts rally to take third at state
Hodag Squirts rally to take third at state
The Hodags bounced back from a semifinal loss to Black River Falls and defeated Marshfield 4-2 Sunday for third place in the Squirt 3A state tourney at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.
Coach Randy Ostrom, who was also on the bench in 2020 when the RIA bantams took third in a home state tournament, said he couldn't help but feel a little bit of déjà vu on Sunday, with Rhinelander battling another team from its own WAHA region for the third-place trophy.
Rhinelander's bantams defeated Lakeland 4-3 in overtime back in 2020 to take third place.
"How could this be two state tournaments in a row for me, in Rhinelander, with a Region 2 team that I'm up against for the third place trophy," he said. "Huge win for us. The kids played absolutely amazing. I couldn't have done it without the support of all of the awesome families and assistant coaches that we have. This has been an awesome group all year long, from start to finish. They've put up with me, all my demands as a coach and all the unreasonable things we do for hockey sometimes, but it's been great. It's a great feeling to go ahead and lift another (trophy) right here. Even though it's not the first but, top-three, not bad."
The Hodags were the No. 1 seed in the bracket - the first year that WAHA has seeded state tournament at the A levels. Rhinelander cruised past Ashland 9-0 in the opener Saturday morning, but stumbled against fourth-seeded Black River Falls in the semifinals, losing 4-1.
The Hodags found themselves down 2-0 early in the second period Sunday following a short-handed goal by Marshfield's Evrett Helwig, but answered with three goals in a span of 3 minutes, 8 seconds to take the lead for good.
Max Cahee scored unassisted at the 2:20 mark of the period, just 18 seconds after the short-hander, to get the rally started. Easton Ostrom added a tally 23 seconds later and Mason Paulson, a U8 Mite playing up with the U10 Squirts, scrapped down low and poked a loose puck home at the 5:28 mark of the second to give the Hodags the lead.
"On the bench we had a nice little talk. All I told them is we need to get pucks on the net and they did it," coach Ostrom said. "As soon as we got our offense moving their feet again like we play, it just took over from there. We played that style of offense all year long and it's been wildly successful for us.
"Once we have that confidence rolling, kind of that ball rolling, that momentum, the kids just take over from there and it just plays itself out after that."
The Hodags staved off a pair of penalties in the third period and iced the game away on an empty-netter by Easton Ostrom from well inside his own blue line with 1:02 remaining.
It was a bit ironic that the Hodags clinched Sunday's game with an empty netter, because a pair of Black River Falls goals with the Rhinelander cage vacant helped account for the final margin in Saturday night's semifinal.
Black River Falls led 1-0 thanks to a Danny King power play goal in the second period. The Hodags opted to play much of the third period without a netminder after Late Rave scored to make it 2-0 just 3:10 into the period. The gamble paid early dividends as Easton Ostrom scored with the extra attacker at the 7:49 mark to get Rhinelander within one, but empty netters by Rave and Shaun Mickelson sealed the Hodags' fate.
"The empty-netters are always that feather on the cap for the team you're playing against," coach Ostrom said. "I think we came out flat, personally. It's funny to say 10-year-olds came out flat, you're usually talking about a much higher level of team when you get into that situation, but I thought we came out flat. I didn't think we controlled the puck well and I know we didn't get on the puck in the offensive zone the way we know how to."
The Hodags did not come out flat in the opener, scoring four goals in each of the first two periods en route to a 9-0 rout over Ashland.
Gage Chavez scored four times in the win, while Easton Ostrom had a pair of goals and two assists. Cahee also scored twice and Paulson added a goal as the Hodags outshot the Oredockers 36-5. Collin Jorata posted five saves in the shutout win.
Somerset defeated Black River Falls 3-1 Sunday for the state title.
While the Hodags didn't end up in the championship game, like coach Ostrom hoped prior to the tournament, he still called it a successful weekend.
"These kids earned everything they got for sure. Everything they got, they had coming," he said. "This is a group of kids, to see this kind of success early in their careers as hockey players, now moving forward, they don't have to be that group of kids that didn't see it until they were U14. They've seen it now. They've been here. They've had some success here. If I were them, I'd just be looking for that next one now."
The RIA will host the 2024 WAHA Peewee 3B state tournament. The Hodags would be eligible to play in that tournament next year, provided they have enough numbers at the U12 level to field both an A and a B team.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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