Hodag hockey fades late against Mosinee

Despite being heavily outshot, the Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team nearly played even with Mosinee through two periods on Thursday night. Mosinee’s constant pressure, however, was too much for the Hodags to withstand.

Mosinee scored the final three goals of the contest and pulled away to a 6-3 victory over the Hodags in Great Northern Conference play at the Rhinelander Ice Arena. 

The Indians (9-6-0, 2-3-0-0 Great Northern) took the lead for good on a Spencer Swiderski power play goal with 1.5 seconds remaining in the second period and tacked on two more scores early in the third.

Mosinee took over the final two periods of the contest, outshooting the Hodags 35-9 in those two frames and 47-17 overall.

“At times tonight we were really solid, stayed home and did the right things in the D zone and at times we ran around,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. “At times our body position was really good, playing inside out like we want to. Other times we had ourselves pinned on the outside and them working from the inside with nothing between them and our goalie. That’s exactly what you don’t want. It’s constantly trying to improve and work on where we’re at.”

Joey Belanger scored twice for Rhinelander, giving him 19 goals on the season and 99 goals for his high school career. Belanger scored the opener 2:03 into the first, taking the puck most of the way for an unassisted power-play tally. No. 99 came on a shot from the bottom of the left circle that found its way home to tie the game at 3 at the 13:47 mark of the second.

Belanger had a couple of looks at No. 100 in the third period that didn’t fall. He was unable to poke one past Mosinee goalie Andrew Lingl in a scramble situation midway through the period. Later on, Lingl bobbled Belanger’s shot from the high slot, but it deflected up and over the crossbar. 

“Credit to him, I hope he gets it,” Laggis said, calling Belanger the best pure shooter he’s coached in nearly three decades on the Hodag bench. 

    Rhinelander’s Zach Edyvean carries the puck through the neutral zone against Mosinee’s Jackson Lindell during the first period of a GNC boys’ hockey game at the Rhinelander Ice Arena Thursday, Jan. 11. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Though Rhinelander was outshot 18-3 in the second period, Belanger’s second goal nearly allowed the Hodags to get out of that period even. However, Karter Massey was called for high sticking with 45 seconds remaining in the period. The Hodags fended off Mosinee’s initial rush. The Indians regrouped in their own end with less than 20 seconds left in the period and made one more surge into the offensive zone. Swiderski took a desperation shot off the left end line with time running down and it found its way past goalie Tyler Kimmerling on a tough angle to give Mosinee a 4-3 lead.

“Giving up that goal with 1.5 in the second is an absolute back-breaker,” Laggis said. “We get out of it even and the momentum is our way — even though we’re tired, we’re burning legs. But giving up that goal of the end like that and going in with that hanging right around your neck is brutal.”

Though Mosinee was far and away the aggressor in the game — penalized nine times for 18 minutes — the few times Rhinelander was called for infractions came back to bite them. Belanger was in the box, serving an offsetting minor with Mosinee’s Cooper Zastrow, when Mosinee took a 3-2 lead on a Lukas Neuwirt tally. Mosinee pushed the lead to 5-3 just 1:42 into the third on Grant Kuklinski’s third goal of the night, which came in a scramble in front of the net with Rhinelander facing a delayed penalty call for tripping. Gavin Obremski scored in the power play at the 7:40 mark of the third, just 10 seconds after Jack Turek was whistled for tripping. 

“It’s not like we took a ton of penalties. We didn’t, but we take them at really untimely moments,” Laggis said. “When you’re already running on low and getting outshot, you’re burning legs and playing one line way too much — which we know we are — the effects of a penalty are just murderous. We saw that tonight. Two of those penalties we got scored on within a few seconds.”

After Belanger’s opener, Kuklinski scored twice in the first period, including a short-handed tally at the 12:07 mark. Rhinelander answered with a power play goal by Gavin Denis that tied game 37 seconds later. It was Denis’s 10th goal of the season. He and Belanger have combined for more than two-thirds (29 of 42) of the Hodags’ goals on the year.

“The bottom line is we have one line doing all of our scoring, clearly,” Laggis need. “We’ve got to be able to spread that out just a little bit more. We just have to be able to play three lines more and keep it out of our net more.”

Kimmerling made a season-high 41 saves in the loss for Rhinelander. Lingl stopped 14 shots in the win for Mosinee. 

Thursday’s game was supposed to be the first of three games in three days for the Hodags, but the East/Merrill tournament, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, was canceled due to inclement weather. Rhinelander will be back in action tonight at Kingsford, Mich.

Though the Hodags have dropped back-to-back games, Laggis said he’s pleased with the improvement his team is showing as it nears the final third of the regular season. 

“Some of our young guys have improved so much from November. I know it might not show up when you’re playing a Mosinee or a Lakeland or whoever, I get that, but when you see where they were at, and how they were not handling the puck early and some of the improvements that we’re making, that’s encouraging,” he said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].