Kassler, Robins too much for RHS hockey

The Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team ended its five-game scoring drought on Tuesday but ran into a team that’s more than adept at finding the back of the net itself.

Eli Kassler scored six times and Owen Dickman added a hat trick as Antigo knocked off the Hodags 10-2 in the consolation semifinal round of the Great Northern Conference tournament in Antigo.

Dylan Shefveland and Drake Nelson scored for the Hodags (2-20-0, 0-9-0-0 Great Northern), marking the first time that the Hodags have scored since Jan. 27 at Waupaca but, otherwise, it was the Kassler and Dickman show. The two seniors played a role in all 10 Antigo goals and accumulated 16 points between them. 

“Eli Kassler is a really, really talented kid,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. “He wasn’t the only guy that scored but he did it with scoring goals, he did it with a couple of assists. He did it with his mouth. He did it with high hands. He just, you know, he was a force.”

Rhinelander got the first goal of the contest as Shefveland found the back of the net 4:50 into the opening period. It marked Rhinelander’s first lead in a game since its last win, a 5-3 victory over Medford in Merrill Jan. 11. 

“I thought Dylan Shefveland worked really hard tonight all the way around,” Laggis said. “The scoring chance early was kind of a credit to that. We’re always talking about shoot the puck, shoot and good things will happen. He shot it low on net, and it went. That was good, a good thing to have happen.”

The Hodags’ lead was short-lived, however. Dickman answered for the Robins just 37 seconds later and Kassler gave Antigo the lead on the power play at the 6:45 mark of the period. Kassler scored again at 11:31 and Dickman tacked on a goal at the 14:54 mark to give Antigo a 4-1 lead the first intermission. 

Dickman scored again on the power play just 41 seconds into the second period and goals by Collin Tiedemann and Kassler made it 7-1 after two periods.

Kassler tacked on three more goals in the third before the Hodags ended the scoring with Drake Nelson’s team-leading 10th goal of the season. 

Both Kassler and Dickman are among the top 10 scorers in the state — Dickman now has 41 goals on the season while Kassler has 39. Laggis said the Hodags tried a couple of different forechecks to keep the Kassler line contained to no avail. 

“We tried running a 2-3 forecheck … you’re trying to eliminate the odd-man rush, yet still being really aggressive and that did not work at all. He just slipped behind that one. Then we tried to put a man on him in the second period, have a one guy follow him around. But we lost Zach (Edyvean) and we had to move another guy to forward to defense and we really couldn’t get on that plan either.”

Laggis said Edyvean left the game under concussion protocol after getting checked in the head, though Antigo was not penalized for the contact. Rhinelander was also without Kadin Rodziczak (illness) for the contest.

The Robins outshot Rhinelander 37-15 in the game. Asher Rivord made 27 saves in defeat. 

The Hodags close out the regular season against the two teams it has beaten this year. Rhinelander traveled to Chequamegon/Phillips Thursday evening in a game that concluded after press time for today’s edition and will skate at home against Medford Saturday in the final round of the Great Northern Conference tournament. The seventh-place game will get underway at 10 a.m.

Meanwhile, the pairings for the WIAA playoffs were announced early this week. As expected, the Hodags drew the eighth seed in their eight-team regional and will travel to top-seeded Tomahawk this coming Thursday.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].