Four-goal third not enough for Hodag hockey at Chequamegon

The Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team is developing a knack for making things interesting in the third period of hockey games. However that has yet to result in a victory for a young Hodag squad. 

That was the case again Thursday, Dec. 11 when, despite scoring four times in the third period, the Hodags came up short in a 7-6 loss to Chequamegon/Phillips in a non-conference contest in Park Falls.

The Hodags (0-6-0, 0-3-0-0 Great Northern) trailed 4-2 after two periods and were down 6-3 with just under 12 minutes to play. They rallied to pull within a goal on two separate occasions, but couldn’t find the equalizer against the Screaming Eagles and Loggers (SEaLs), which picked up their first win against a Wisconsin opponent since 2022. 

“One of the real themes that we’re just seeing is we don’t play 51 hard, hard minutes of hockey,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said afterward. “We play a portion of the game really hard. And tonight, there was a 12-minute stretch in the third period where we outscored them 3-1. And if we play with that intensity all night, no guarantees, but we likely win the hockey game. We got to learn how to play three full periods.”

Jack Turek and Logan Leonard each scored twice for the Hodags, including goals that kicked off Rhinelander’s third-period charge. 

Leonard got the Hodags back within two on a goal at the 6:21 mark of the third and Turek banged home a feed from Kadin Rodziczak just over a minute later that cut the SEaLs’ advantage to 6-5. 

Will Krause restored the two-goal lead for Chequamegon at the 11:15 mark, scoring on a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle. The Hodags got new life moments later when the SEaLs’ Kellen Kranig was called for a major boarding penalty. Asher Rivord converted on the power play to make it 7-6 with 4:30 remaining. 

Rivord had a three-point night, adding a pair of assists. Riley Squires also had two assists in the game.

“Jack Turek is starting to find the net. He had two goals. Logan Leonard had two goals. We had a big goals by Asher Rivord and Carson Plehn had the other one,” Laggis said. “It’s really awesome to see those guys scorned and doing that. But the bottom line is we’ve got to get a whole lot more consistent and get more guys doing that as well.” 

However, despite having an extra attacker for much of the remainder of regulation, the Hodags couldn’t find the equalizer. Rhinelander pulled goalie Connor McGee for an extra attacker with 50 seconds remaining, giving them a 6-on-4 advantage momentarily. A head contact penalty against Squires moments later took the Hodags off the power play. McGee came out again with 7 seconds remaining, but the Hodags were unable to get off a final shot.

“We took a head contact and took ourselves right off the power play, and that really took a lot of the wind out of the sails right there,” Laggis said.

Goals by Leonard and Plehn gave Rhinelander a 2-1 lead in the first period. However, senior defenseman Ryan Carey was called for holding late in the period and Kranig cashed in on the power play, scoring 1.6 seconds before the buzzer. 

That momentum carried into the second for the SEaLs. Nate Nichols scored on the power play at the 5:34 mark and Kranig added his second goal at the 7:01 mark as Chequamegon took a 4-2 lead after two periods.

“We made one play and just couldn’t make the second play to clear it. So never got out of the mess. And that was a big momentum change. We played a really poor second period,” Laggis said.

Turek scored for the Hodags 23 seconds into the third to make it a one-goal game, but goals by Cole Krause and Preston Negri 32 seconds apart made it 6-3 SEaLs with 11:48 remaining. 

Cole Krause also had Chequamegon’s first goal of the evening. The SEaLs outshot Rhinelander 40-31 in the contest.   

“Credit to them, they have three hockey players that are nice. They have a Team Wisconsin kid on there, and between him and his line mates — 8 (Will Krause), 9 (Kranig), and 15 (Cole Krause) — they just did all the damage for Park Falls. And they’re good hockey players. 

“Part of it is just us not really playing strong in the D zone at all. And so that was extremely disappointing. But then, you know, part of it was just a couple of them are real fast and we had trouble with 8 and 9 in particular. They did some damage on us.”

McGee made 33 saves in the loss for Rhinelander.  

The Hodags are back in action tonight as they travel to Antigo in a GNC matchup.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].