Comeback nets Eagle co-op first win of the season

A comeback effort provided the Northland Pines girls’ hockey co-op its first win of the season on Tuesday.

Before their win, the Eagles — a co-op comprised of skaters from Northland Pines, Rhinelander, Lakeland, Antigo, Three Lakes, Hurley and Norway (Mich.) high schools — fell 6-0 to Beaver Dam on Friday, Dec. 12. The following day, the Northland Pines co-op tied the Icebergs 1-1 in double overtime in Stoughton. The Eagles won 5-3 over Medford in Eagle River.

Beaver Dam 6, Pines co-op 0

After a scoreless first period, the Golden Beavers (5-0) scored four times in the second period and twice in the third. Emersen Damon, Lil Mansueto and Brenna Rhodes scored two goals each for Beaver Dam.

The Eagles were shutout for the first time this season. They totaled 14 shots.

“We continue to get injuries, and they are stacking up against us,” coach Jeff Stebbeds said. “Other girls have been doing their best to step up in the absence of players getting injured. We are just such a young team, so it takes a while for them to catch on to everything we are trying to teach.”

The Golden Beavers took advantage of four Eagle penalties. Half of Beaver Dam’s goals came on the power play. 

In addition to her two goals, Rhodes had two assists for Beaver Dam. Addison Hoekstra collected at least three assists. 

Eagle goalie Lucy Nowak made 26 saves in the loss.

Pines co-op 1, Stoughton 1

The Eagles didn’t have much of a break before taking on the Icebergs (2-5-2) in Stoughton. Even though the Northland Pines co-op had a 53-33 shot advantage, the score resulted in a 1-1 draw.

“Saturday the girls came out and played hard again,” Stebbeds said.

Ayla Shepherdson scored 2 minutes, 15 seconds into the first period. Bella Nowak got the assist on the play.

The Icebergs countered with a goal themselves in the first period. Sydney Gilbertson scored with the assist going to Ashlyn Bartel.

Neither team scored in the second, third or overtime periods. The Eagles (0 for 6) and Icebergs (0 for 4) combined to go 0 for 10 in power play chances. 

Lucy Nowak made 32 saves in one of her best games of the season. Stoughton’s Anika Mueller made 52 saves to help preserve the tie for the Icebergs.

“The girls played well in the double overtime tie on Saturday,” Stebbeds said. “Stoughton has a good goalie, and she shut us down.  It was our second game of the weekend after a long trip down, so we were happy that they played much better on Saturday.”

Pines co-op 5, Medford 3

    Lena Chiamulera controls the puck in the second period of a game against Medford Tuesday, Dec. 16 at the Eagle River Recreation Association Sports Arena. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

A wild first period saw a total of five goals be scored. The Eagles settled in and outscored the Raiders 3-0 in the second and third periods.

“Took us a while to get started, had to wake them up with that early timeout there, but once we woke up a little bit and realized we were in a hockey game, then we started moving the puck a lot more and finally started getting some shots off,” Stebbeds said. “Just happy that we brought it all together finally.”

The Northland Pines co-op scored five goals from five different skaters. When the dust settled, Mya Renkes led the Eagles with two points on a goal and assist. Bella Nowak scored the go-ahead and game-winning goal for the Northland Pines co-op in the third period.

Medford (0-5) scored on a third of their shots in the first period. Zayleah Leonhardt was responsible for two of Medford’s three goals. On both occasions, Gracie Strama took a shot, saved by Eagle goalie Lucy Nowak. Leonhardt was there for the rebound and score. Leonhardt’s second goal gave Medford a 3-2 lead after the first period.

The Raiders got out to a 2-0 lead. Alessia Salamin shot and scored unassisted 4 minutes, 31 seconds into the game. Then, Leonhardt scored her first goal. Northland Pines co-op called a timeout to regroup.

“We were just getting mesmerized by the puck rather than doing our jobs and responsibilities, and they just got some free ice and got some quality shots off, and we ended up screening our goalie a couple times on those shots as well,” Stebbeds said.

The Eagles outscored the Raiders 5-1 after the timeout. Jordi Adamovich got the Northland Pines co-op on the board with the assist to Makenzie Nicholson.

Just 34 seconds later, Laine Jelinski scored her first-career high school goal with the assist to Mya Renkes. Her goal tied the game at 2-2.

Moving to the second period, Lilly Beitler tied the game at 3-3 with an unassisted goal. That would be the score going into the third and final period.

Lucy Nowak totaled 17 saves in the win. Leonhardt had several breakaways in the final two periods. Lucy Nowak stood tall and thwarted the attacks, shutting out Medford in the second and third periods.

The Eagles worked together for an insurance goal. First, Medford called a timeout midway through the third period.

After the timeout, the Eagles won a faceoff, made a pass and got a goal. It came seven seconds after the Raiders’ timeout. Mya Renkes got the goal with assists to Avery Renkes and Rhinelander’s Reese Retallick.

“It was that tipping point in the game, right? Because it’s still going to go anybody’s way and just to see something that we had drawn up actually work off the draw there,” Stebbeds said. “It was big. I can’t really say much more than that.”

Northland Pines outshot Medford 41-20.

The Northland Pines co-op took on Central Wisconsin in Wausau on Thursday. Up next, the Eagles (1-3-1) will host Wisconsin Valley Union on Monday, Dec. 22 in Eagle River. The puck drops at 7 p.m.

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].