Hodag hockey drops opener at Shawano

The Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team fell behind early and couldn’t recover on Nov. 25 as it dropped its season opener 7-2 to the Shawano/Bonduel Hawks at the Crawford Center in Shawano.

The Hodags (0-1-0, 0-0-0-0 Great Northern) spotted the Hawks three goals in the first period and trailed 5-1 after two periods. Despite the loss, coach M.J. Laggis said he was pleased with what his team showed in its first live action of the season against a different opponent. 

“We have a lot of things that we have to clean up, but there were some real positives tonight,” he said. “One of them was that we were competing hard. We’re not laying down. We’re working hard. Late in the game, there was no quit in the team. They were working hard. We really like that. Attitude in the locker room is  fantastic turn around from last year, really solid.”

Gavin Hundt scored three times for the Hawks, including the first two goals of the contest. A Landon Vickery goal at the 14:37 mark of the first gave the Hawks a 3-1 lead.

Freshman Finnley Anunson scored in his varsity debut for Rhinelander. He was in position in front of the net to take advantage of a turnover in the Shawano defensive zone and scored on a backhander at the 10:33 mark of the second. That goal cut Shawano’s lead to 3-1, but the Hawks were able to quickly respond with a pair of goals by Blake Swedberg and Hundt to make it 5-1 after two periods.

“When it was 3-1, we actually were generating really nice momentum. We scored that goal. The bench was fired up,” Laggis said. “It was 3-1 and it was really that kind of a linchpin moment when if we just could have kept the puck out of our net — because they scored shortly after — and generated more chances, we could have made that a 3-2 game, and it’s a totally different game. But we’re just unable to do that.”

Shawano tacked goals by Michael Dillenburg and Kielian Armbuster in the third period to make it 7-1. Senior Logan Leonard scored for the Hodags with 2:17 remaining in the third period, putting home a rebound in a scrum in front of the net. Freshman Charlie Duquaine and senior Dylan Shefveland were credited with the assists. Leonard scored just two goals all of last season for the Hodags. 

“It was nice to see us get some guys that need to score to start scoring. We need more of it, of course,” Laggis said.

Shawano outshot Rhinelander 25-17 in the contest. Freshman Connor McGee recorded 18 saves in the loss for the Hodags. 

“Connor McGee, in his first varsity start, really had good composure and battled hard the entire way,” Laggis noted. “We didn’t take very good care of the puck and defensive zone overall. The defensive zone, we’ve got to keep getting better. We got to clean it up both positionally and just our ability to get at loose pucks and get them headed north, up and out of the zone.”

It was a similar start for the Hodags compared to last season, when they lost 5-1 to the Hawks in Shawano. Rhinelander will see the Hawks again Feb. 10 at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.

The Hodags did not have a preseason scrimmage this year, so Laggis said there was plenty that he saw on the ice against the Hawks that can serve as a benchmark as the team looks to improve over the course of the season. 

“There’s just so many things, when you play a live game and you really start to see where all the weaknesses — from how we’re entering the offensive zone to where we’re breaking down on our forecheck, to what we’re not doing well on our backcheck, to where the breakdowns are in the D zone, that lead to not breaking the puck out,” he said. “When you see all that live and happening, you get an idea of this is what we need to fix and this is how we got to do it.”

The Hodags open Great Northern Conference play this week, and will not ease into the conference slate. Rhinelander hosts Northland Pines tonight at the Rhinelander Ice Arena and will travel to Tomahawk Thursday to take on the defending WIAA Division 2 state champion Hatchets. 

“We’re going to have some very tough games this next week, and we know that,” Laggis said. “And I think as a group of coaches, we have a really, really good, balanced approach of, ‘This is a group that we’re just going to keep improving upon and getting better.’ The reason that we feel like that is because we have good kids in that locker room and we’re working pretty hard at practice. So, when you have those components in place, then the next thing is you can improve.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].