Team preview: RHS hockey

With three-plus decades on the bench for the Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team, coach M.J. Laggis is not mincing words about how difficult last year’s 3-22-0 campaign was and how desperately his team wants to return to playing a stronger brand of hockey.

“We’ve had a great work ethic here in the past, and our teams have been known for outworking people, but, you know what? Let’s just call it what it is. Last year we weren’t that team,” he said. “We weren’t that group. And that was hard. It was hard to watch. It’s hard for our fans to watch. It was a much different version of us. We’ve talked a lot about turning the leaf, and turning a new page and coming in here with a great attitude.”

The Hodags will still be relatively young and inexperienced as they kick off their season tonight at Shawano, but Laggis said there’s been a different vibe around practice over the last couple of weeks, which he hopes will help lead to more success come season’s end.

“We really got some good energy going, and some camaraderie in that locker room,” Laggis said. “I’m just really happy with what they’re doing right now. We got to keep working hard. We know where we’re at. We got to keep getting better and just try to be as competitive as we can be in this conference.”

The Hodags were last in the GNC in offense last year, scoring just 1.3 goals per game, but bring back their top three scorers from a season ago in senior Drake Nelson (11 goals, 4 assists), senior Dylan Shefveland (9g, 6a) and junior Kadin Rodziczak (4g, 0a).

In addition to those three, the Hodags are looking for improved seasons from sophomore Carson Plehn (2g, 1a), senior Logan Leonard (2g, 1a) and junior Jack Turek (0g, 2a).

“It leaves two pretty strong lines in the third line that’ll be scrapping to get in there,” Laggis said.

The Hodag front lines could get a boost from another, unexpected source. That’s junior Asher Rivord — the team’s starting goaltender from a year ago. He’s shed the goalie pads at practice and, Laggis said, he’s looked pretty natural at forward. 

“Asher Rivord has been a big surprise at forward in just terms of how he looks and how he’s flying up and down the ice,” he said. “This isn’t a rash decision. There were conversations that led to this, last season. Then in the spring, it came up again, and then as we talked more, Asher impresses me as a skater. In terms of what he looked like as a freshman, as a skater, he’s come a long way. He’s strong out there, he’s fast, he’s really scrappy and competitive. And so it’s just kind of a fun time to give this a try.”

    Goaltender Connor McGee surveys the play during Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey practice at the Rhinelander Ice Arena Tuesday, Nov. 18. McGee, a freshman, enters the season as the Hodags’ starting goaltender with incumbent Asher Rivord moving to forward. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rivord’s move means Connor McGee is in line to be the team’s starting netminder. He’s the first freshman since Seth Stafford in 2016-17 to enter the season as the Hodags’ No. 1 goalie. McGee will be tested right out of the gate, but Laggis said he’s look pretty unflappable so far at practice.

“The one thing about Connor is he’s got a really good demeanor. You could just throw a ton of rubber on him at practice, and he understands that,” Laggis said. “So far so good, but it’s going to get pretty hot when the game start. We know that. We’ve got him a lot of attention on his movements in practice. Both coach (Randy) Ostrom and coach (Bryan) Kronberger have done a great job of working him, giving him movements, getting him in a routine, at of practice, paying attention to him. We got to just keep bringing him along for sure.”

Rhinelander could be relatively green at defenseman to start the season. The team’s top blue-liner and lone all-conference recipient from last year, Zach Edyvean, graduated. Junior Gabe Kennedy had five assists last year and was also strong on the blue line, but is expected to miss a few weeks at the start of the season as he recovers from a shoulder injury. 

Returning skaters Riley Squires and Braydon Lorman are expected to contribute on the blue line, as is senior Ryan Carey, who transferred into the district from Chippewa Falls. 

“Ryan Carey is a really nice kid,” Laggis noted. “He’s a locker room unifier, and he just looks like a really nice, solid defenseman right now in practice. We’re really excited to have him be a big staple and a big backbone of that group.”

Rhinelander opens the season tonight at Shawano, which Laggis said will be a nice early-season test against a team that has improved over the last couple of seasons and a team that is in the Hodags’ sectional for the WIAA tournament. 

“That is a team that I will absolutely guarantee you will win some games this year. It’s a good opener for us. We’re going to have to go there and compete and battle,” Laggis said.

From there, the Hodags will get thrown right into the fire in terms of Great Northern Conference play. The Hodags will host Northland Pines to kick off the season Dec. 2 before traveling to Tomahawk to take on the defending Division 2 state champion Hatchets. Laggis said Tomahawk is still the overwhelming conference favorite, though the sectional will be more open this year with the Hatchets getting elevated to Division 1 via the WIAA Tournament Performance Factor.

“When it comes time to this conference, they’re the big brother right now. There’s no question about it,” he said. “But there are some teams that are coming right behind them. Northland Pines is a much improved hockey team and they’re going to battle people really hard. Mosinee’s always going to be right there and be solid. And you know, every single time I hear someone say, ‘Oh, Lakeland, they’re losing everything.’ They’re they come back stronger than ever. So, you know, those teams will be right there in the conference.”

The Hodags will play each conference team once in a round-robin format, but the end of the season conference schedule has changed this year. The conference has gone away from a full-fledged season-ending conference tournament and opted, instead, for a mini three-game round robin where the top four teams will play each other once more, as will the bottom four teams. 

Laggis the team will need to crawl before it walks in terms of getting back to the success it had a few seasons ago — when it was winning double-digit games perennially and frequenting the sectional rounds of the WIAA tournament. Win or lose, Laggis said the goal is to give every team they play a battle and make them earn their result.

“More than any win in a loss, it’s that heart and attitude that we got to get this group back to,” he said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].