Hodag hockey falls to No. 1 Tomahawk in GNC tourney opener

The Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team was no match for the top-ranked team in Division 2 on Tuesday night as the Tomahawk Hatchets rolled past the Hodags 9-0 in Tomahawk in the opening round of the Great Northern Conference tournament.

The top-seeded Hatchets (17-3-0) outshot Rhinelander 51-4 in the contest and controlled things from the opening face-off. Johan Dickens recorded a hat trick and was one of four different Hatchets with at least three points in the game. While closer than the 10-0 loss Rhinelander suffered to the Hatchets during the regular season, Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said Tomahawk is simply at another level.

“I’ll tell you, Jonah Dickens, he’s as good of a player as I’ve seen in a long time, just lightning fast and, tonight in particular, we didn’t have the answer for their tape-to-tape passing and really quick transitions up ice,” he said. “They make one, two, three good passes in the offensive zone and then comes a misdirection pass to the back door and a great scoring chance — and they’re very, very good at it.”

Goals came in bunches for the Hatchets during the contest. They went up 2-0 3:11 into the game on goals 24 seconds apart by Dickens and Jett Reilly and tacked on two more goals over the final 2:07 of the period to take a 4-0 lead to the first intermission.

The Hatchets scored only twice in the second period, but those were goals 32 seconds apart courtesy of Sawyer Hanna and Carson Childers. Dickens scored 2:44 into the third period and finished his hat trick at the 10:36 mark. Brayden Lamer score 27 seconds after that to round out the scoring. 

Laggis commended his defense and goalie Asher Rivord, who made 42 saves in the contest, for the efforts against Tomahawk’s relentless pressure. 

“The defensemen were really scrappy down low and did a good job trying to cover the back door and be at the point of attack when the puck was in the corner,” he said. “Nate Cordy, as a forward, does a really good job in the D zone working down though and he’s one of those guys that did that tonight …  Asher had some really nice saves. I think about the second period and he has some really nice saves and kept us alive right there.”

Though the WIAA tournament bracket has yet to be released, Tuesday night’s game was almost certainly a prelude to an opening round matchup between the two squads. The sectional field is the entire GNC minus Medford. The Raiders were replaced in the draw by Shawano/Bonduel, which beat Rhinelander twice during the regular season. 

Laggis said while pulling an upset would be an extremely tall order, there are things the Hodags can do to try to close the gap for a seemingly inevitable third meeting with Tomahawk. 

“You have to live in your D zone get some and try to find a way to have some transition hockey and get up ice and crate scoring chances,” he said. “We did have two really really nice scoring chances tonight we didn’t score but we had two really nice chances and that’s not enough. You know we need more, clearly, to win a hockey game like that.”

The Hodags (2-17-0) took on Kingsford, Mich. Thursday in  the next to last home game of the season. That game concluded after press time for today’s edition. Meanwhile, last weekend’s postponed game at Ashland has been rescheduled for this afternoon, with a 4 o’clock faceoff up in Ashland. 

Rhinelander will face Antigo next Tuesday in the consolations semifinals of the GNC tournament. The Robins, minus starting goalie Richie Veriha (illness), lost 9-3 to Northland Pines on Tuesday. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].