Everest blanks Hodag hockey 4-0

The offensive woes for the Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team continued on Tuesday night. The Hodags were outshot 54-13 and fell to the D.C. Everest Evergreens 4-0 at Greenheck Fieldhouse in Schofield.

The Hodags (1-9-0, 0-2-0-0 Great Northern) were shut out for a fourth straight game. The team’s scoring drought now extends 13 periods since their last goal in a 2-1 loss to Pacelli on Dec. 17 in Rhinelander. It also marked the sixth time this season that the Hodags were held scoreless. 

“It comes down to us not getting enough shots, enough rebounds to score goals,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. “We’ve got to spend more zone time. We’re spending very little zone time right now and obviously the goal is to be in that offensive zone a whole lot more.”

Penalties, a problem for the Hodags in a 8-0 loss last Thursday at home against Marshfield, were again an issue on Tuesday. Rhinelander was penalized six times for 12 minutes in the contest, and three of the Evergreens’ four goals came on the power play. 

“I’m truly disappointed in some of the penalties that we take,” Laggis said. “We have really tried to root that stuff out. We’ve used the number of different techniques to root that out and it just keeps resurfacing, so we got to try another avenue.”

Back-to-back power play goals 40 seconds apart put the Evergreens ahead 2-0 in the opening period. Braxton Beiler poked in a rebound off a Shaeden Fogelberg shot from the right point at the 10:57 mark of the first, toward the end of a kneeing minor on the Hodags’ Logan Leonard. Everest then cashed in seconds into a Jack Turek hooking penalty as Cole VanSlyke maneuvered around the Rhinelander defense and beat goalie Asher Rivord top shelf to the stick side. 

VanSlyke also scored the Evergreens’ lone even-strength goal just 1:54 into the second period as he one-timed a Hayden Johnson pass from behind the end line. 

Everest rounded out the scoring at the 13:05 mark of the third as Adam McKaig found space in the slot and scored with the Hodags down a man after a Dylan Shefveland slashing call.

Rivord made 50 saves in defeat for Rhinelander. 

“I thought Asher made a number of really nice saves to keep us in there and, truth be told, we gave up one goal five-on-five,” Laggis said. “Five-on-five, it was the 1-0 the game. Granted Asher made some nice saves and granted we haven’t scored a goal in a while. That’s got to happen as well. You can’t win if you don’t score a goal but I thought there was some improvement the defensive zone for sure.”

Rhinelander will face the South Central (DeForest) co-op in the opening game of the East/Merrill Tournament in Merrill this evening. Depending on the outcome of that game, the Hodags will either face East/Merrill or Medford on Saturday. Coach Laggis called the tournament two more opportunities to get back on track prior to Rhinelander’s next Great Northern Conference contest at Northland Pines next Tuesday. 

“We’re continually trying to make corrections and, you know, it’s a matter now of doing that — making some corrections. We’re going to keep trying to play better and we’re going to keep trying to coach the right things and get us on track for a full 51 minutes and that’s the goal for Friday night,” he said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].