Cronauer earns Hodag Hockey’s Al Baker Award

Timber Cronauer’s numbers weren’t the most eye-popping, but his ability to keep the Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team together during a long, difficult season was. Ultimately that led him to earn the team’s highest honor. 

Cronauer was the recipient of this year’s Alfred O. Baker Outstanding Hockey Player Award. The honor was presented to him last Tuesday as the Hodag hockey team wrapped up its season with a banquet at the Cedric A. Vig Outdoor Classroom.

The award is presented annually in honor of Baker, the Hodags’ hockey coach from 1949-1961. It was established in 1991 and goes to, as stated on the plaque that displays the names of the previous award winners, “an outstanding senior hockey player who has shown good sportsmanship, hard work and dedication to the goals of the hockey program.”

Cronauer had only two goals and two assists for the Hodags this season, but coach M.J. Laggis said he displayed a number of traits that suit the award — so much so that it was not the only Baker Award Cronauer received during the banquet. He also was presented a Hobey Baker Character Award, a state-wide honor that is presented to seniors who have been nominated by their head coaches for the character they have displayed on and off the ice. 

“Timber’s got character oozing out of every part of him. He’s just he just fantastic guy,” Laggis said. “He came in there and he unified the locker room, and he’s just a fantastic guy. Every single guy on that team, they love being around him and he’s the guy that when everything is in pieces in the middle of a hockey game, literally, he can come to the bench and settle a few people down. He can get a guy on his arm and talk to him and say, ‘Come on, move forward here.’ He was great at talking to his linemates when things were unraveling, which they often were. He just did a fantastic job in that aspect.”

Character was a theme repeated several times in the awards that were presented over the course of the evening. The Hodags had two Hobey Baker recipients. The other was senior Nate Cordy, who earned a captain’s letter on his sweater by the final month of the season. 

“Nate is a guy that just proved it day in and day out,” Laggis said of Cordy, who also earned the team’s Mr. Hustle award. “He wasn’t on me or talking to me. He was there doing it with a broom, doing it with a dustpan in the locker room, doing it getting off the bus and helping in any way, shape or from and just being Nate. He was a guy that could settle things down.

“Nate’s the guy that, shift in and shift out in the practice setting, absolutely never quit. He never quits on a drill. He killed penalties way beyond his skillset this year. He did a fantastic job with that. He never quits on a shift never quits on a team.”

In a similar vein to Cronauer and Cordy, senior Karter Massey earned the team’s Hodag award.

“One of the things that stands to me about Karter is he’s never someone in a locker room that is going to break it apart,” Laggis said. “He’s a unifier. He’s constantly trying to unify. And that’s a good thing. He’s got a very quiet way about that, but he’s never a guy that’s going to try to pick on or destroy some aspect of the locker room.”

Junior Dylan Shefveland and sophomore Drake Nelson shared team MVP honors. They finished tied on the team in total scoring with 15 points each. Nelson led the way with 11 goals on the year while Shefveland was the Hodags’ top assist man with nine —which led to him also receiving the team’s Playmaker Award. 

“These two were both our leading scorers and not just leading scores, but really toward the end of the year too, those guys that we just had a lot of confidence in,” Laggis said. “Dylan in terms of just his ability to flat out kill a penalty and go crazy down there in the offensive zone and have a big motor and Drake from the standpoint that, while he wants to get his boots a little bit faster, he’s got really good hands. He’s got really good awareness of what he’s doing. He was able to score a few big goals and we need a lot more of that. These guys are going to have to be part of the offensive thrust moving forward.”

Senior Zach Edyvean, the Hodags’ lone all-conference recipient, earned the team’s Blue Line Award as its top defenseman. He finished with a goal and two assists on the season — numbers Laggis said would have certainly been higher had he not sacrificed for the team and agreed to move from forward to defense prior to his junior season. 

“Zach is a guy that would probably been a leading scorer, and been right there last year. Instead, he made a decision that he was going to play defense for us. And again, I think that’s outstanding when a guy shows that unselfishness,” Laggis said.

Sophomore goaltender Asher Rivord earned the team’s most improved award. Rivord faced a trial by fire in his first year as the Hodags’ everyday starting goaltender. He posted a 3-22-0 record with a .855 save percentage and a 5.67 goals against average — all while facing 987 shots during the course of the season. 

“This year by about mid-to-late January, I would really say that it was night and day,” Laggis said of Rivord’s improvement. “To be in that moment when you’re in there and you got the No. 1 team in the state (Tomahawk) just pounding the daylights out of you — shot, rebound, shot, rebound, shot, rebound — and you keep your composure probably something he could have done in November, but it was certainly something he was able to do in February, keep his head in there and play to the best of his ability.”

The Hodags went 3-22-0 on the season and were knocked out of the WIAA tournament in the opening round by eventual Division 2 state champion, Tomahawk.

    Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team award winners pose for a photograph following the team’s banquet at the Cedric A. Vig Outdoor Classroom Tuesday, March 11. Pictured, from left to right, are Asher Rivord, Karter Massey, Dylan Shefveland, Timber Cronauer, Drake Nelson and Zach Edyvean. Award winner Nate Cordy was unavailable for the photograph. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Freelancer Bob Mainhardt contributed to this report.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].