Hodag hockey shut out again in loss to Marshfield

It took Marshfield all of seven seconds Thursday night to take away the notion that the RHS boys’ hockey team would find some momentum after a pair of difficult games over the holidays. 

That’s how long it took for Joey Cashmer to score the first goal in the non-conference tilt and the Tigers never looked back, routing the Hodags 8-0 at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.

Cashmer scored twice and had a pair of assists for the Tigers (6-8-0, 0-3-0 Wis. Valley), who scored four times in each of the first to periods to put the game out of reach. The loss marked the fifth time in the last six games that the Hodags (1-8-0, 0-2-0-0 Great Northern) failed to score a goal.

The result left Hodag coach M.J. Laggis baffled after what he felt were some good practices earlier in the week, following back-to-back 9-0 losses to West Bend and Homestead over the holidays.

“We had two of our better days of practices the last two days. We really honestly did,” Laggis said. “We had everyone at the rink. We were doing some things better in neutral ice. We were doing some things better working in the D zone and on our forecheck. We worked on every aspect of it, and felt like ‘Wow, you know, we’re making some progress here.’  Did didn’t expect that kind of a game tonight.”

The Tigers set the tone quickly, with six shots over the first 87 seconds as they built at 2-0 lead. Wyatt Fischer won the opening draw for Marshfield and fed it to Cashmer, who rushed in and scored on a breakaway chance off the left wing. Cashton Anderson doubled the lead moments later as he poked home a loose puck in a scramble in front of the Hodag net. 

Marshfield made it 3-0 on a power play goal by Fischer at the 8:55 mark of the period and Cole Kenny rounded out the opening salvo with a point-blank one-timer on a pass that Cashmer slid through the slot.

Owen Hoereman beat Rhinelander goalie Asher Rivord 4:25 into the second on a wraparound chance that went between the sophomore’s legs. Blake Meissner added a power play tally at the 9:53 mark, Brayden Widmann scored from close range at the 11:12 mark and Cashmer rounded out the scoring with just 12 seconds remaining in the second period. 

The Hodags, who had been assessed just six penalties combined over their previous three games, took eight on Tuesday night. Marshfield was 2 for 7 on the power play while Rhinelander was 0 for 3. 

“That’s kind of the way season has been,” Laggis said. “You have one thing that you feel like you’re getting it under control and then another thing comes up. Tonight it was eight penalties and quite frankly, there were some bad ones.”

“I didn’t think that’s what we’d be talking about after the game. I really didn’t,” Laggis added. “I didn’t think that was going to be an issue, but it was, and um we’re going to try to get that problem solved.”

Rhinelander is also trying to find some answers on offense as its scoring drought reached 10 consecutive periods without a goal. The Hodags’ last tally came in the second period of a 3-2 loss to Pacelli back on Dec. 17. 

Though Rhinelander was outshot 31-16 in the contest, it did have some chances to snap that spell. Leading scorer Drake Nelson was poked off a 2-on-1 breakaway midway through the first period and the Hodags then couldn’t find a rebound on a scramble situation in front of the Tigers’ net less than a minute later. 

Senior Karter Massey rang a shot off the post in the opening moments of the second period and Dylan Shefveland fired high on a 2-on-1 chance in the third. 

“We did have a couple opportunities and it would have been nice (to score) when it was still 3-0 or 4-0 when we had a chance or two to score a goal,” Laggis said. “We might have been able to gain a little bit of momentum right there. Obviously, we didn’t. and of course, they had the scoring chances and they capitalized big time.”

Rivord made 23 saves in defeat for Rhinelander while Rahul Dissanayake stopped all 16 shots he faced to record his first shutout of the year for the Tigers. 

The Hodags hit the road to face D.C. Everest tonight in Schofield before traveling to Merrill this coming weekend for the annual East-Merrill tournament. 

“Everest will be a team just like Marshfield. It’ll be a real similar game. So we’re going to have to play a whole lot better,” Laggis said. “Then, you know, on the weekend we go to Merrill and play in that tournament. That’s traditionally been a very fun tournament for us. We’ve won it many a time, but we just got to focus on playing a little bit more consistent and not giving puck away in the defensive zone. When we get control of puck and then we just tap it up the boards or throw it to their point, it comes right back on us. So trust me when I say that we we’re really trying to solve that and work on it, but we’re just not seeing it on a game day. So we got to find a better way to try to do it.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].