Top ranked Tomahawk puts 10-spot on RHS

The Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team could not keep up with Tomahawk Thursday night, falling 10-0 to the Hatchets at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.

The Hatchets, ranked No. 1 in last week’s Wisconsin Prep Hockey D2 coaches poll, jumped on the Hodags for four goals over the first 5:23 of the contest. They led 5-0 after one period and tacked on five more goals in the second before turning it over to its third and fourth lines for the majority of the third period. 

The Hatchets, the reigning GNC co-champions and WIAA sectional winners, spread the wealth around. Austin Lamer and Jett Reilly each scored twice and six other Hatchets found the back of the net as Tomahawk outshot Rhinelander 68-7.

“Our defensive zone has improved from where we were a month ago, but very clearly a team like that with that kind of speed, and cycling and shooting ability and (that) is just quick and every aspect of the game, they expose a lot and you saw that tonight,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said.

The Hatchets made two for their first three shots of the game count as Austin Lamer let loose a wrist shot at the 3:28 mark followed by a Jett Reilly look in the low slot 27 seconds later to give Tomahawk a 2-0 lead. Landyn Seymour cashed in on a backhander at the 4:38 mark and Trevor Schumann ended the Hatchets early torrent with another backhander that found its way by 5:23 into the opening stanza. 

Austin Lamer rounded out the first-period scoring on a point-blank chance at the 11:58 mark and the Hatchets kept the offense going in the second period. Jonah Dickens scored on a wrist shot 4:18 into the frame followed by a Jett Reilly power play tally at the 7:30 mark. Goals by Carson Childers, Brayden Lamer and Sawyer Hanna rounded out the scoring for the Hatchets. 

Rhinelander goaltender Asher Rivord made a career-high 58 saves in the loss. Laggis said the sophomore rebounded from a shaky few minutes to open the contest. 

“Early in the game he had a couple that he probably wanted back. And instead of melting down or instead of losing his composure, he got stronger as the night went,” he said. “You think of that sequence in the third, hard shot, took one off the head, took another one off the upper part of the body, and then there was another shot after that. So it was ... save, flurry, save, flurry, save, flurry. I thought he did a really, really good job of keeping composure and battling throughout the game.”

Rhinelander had very few scoring chances against the Hatchets. Arguably the Hodags’ best look came roughly 5 1/2 minutes into the second period as Tomahawk’s Trevor Seliskar denied a close chance from freshman Carson Plehn and senior Nate Cordy missed just wide on the rebound chance. 

Laggis also credited the play of his defensemen, who saw plenty of action in their own zone against the Hatchets on Thursday.

“Gabe Kennedy has been a kid that just competes as hard as he possibly can night in and night out. I thought he made a lot of really, really nice goal-saving plays tonight. You know, Riley Squires is a kid that’s got a knack for finding the puck and chip and pucks out and doing just that, so is Zach Edyvean, and I thought Jack Turek took a step tonight,” he said. “So you know, our defensemen had a ton of work. They were down low, they had a lot of pressure on them, and I thought they fought pretty hard.” 

The loss dropped Rhinelander to 1-4-0 on the season, and 0-2 in the GNC. The Hodags are back at the RIA tonight to host Stevens Point Pacelli in non-conference play. 

“Tuesday will be another challenge. We got a few days to regroup and we'll see what we can do,” Laggis said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].