Eagles girls’ hockey co-op wins twice, falls to Valley Union

Having won two straight, the Northland Pines girls’ hockey co-op had a tough task with a Wisconsin Valley Conference road contest.

The Eagles, made up of skaters from Northland Pines, Rhinelander, Lakeland, Antigo, Three Lakes, Hurley and Norway (Mich.) high schools, beat Medford 7-3 on the road Friday, Jan. 20 and followed with a 3-2 win over Coulee Region Saturday, Jan. 31 in Eagle River. Then, the Northland Pines co-op fell 4-2 at Wisconsin Valley Union on Monday.

Northland Pines 7, Medford 3

Originally scheduled to be played on Monday, Jan. 26, the game was moved to Friday due to cold temperatures. In a corresponding schedule change, Northland Pines’ game at Superior, which was to be played on Friday, was canceled.

Tied at 2-2 in the second period, the Eagles (5-10-2, 2-5-0 Wis. Valley) scored five of the last six goals to complete the road win.

“We moved the puck much better because everyone is finally playing within a system,” Northland Pines coach Jeff Stebbeds said. “Sometimes with young teams, players try to do everything themselves.”

Bella Nowak led all players with four points. Lilly Tomlanovich added three points for Northland Pines. In fact, Bella Nowak and Tomlanovich worked together on three separate goals, including the first goal. Bella Nowak scored, assisted by Tomlanovich in the first period.

The Northland Pines co-op totaled 42 shots on goal. 

Tied at 1-1, Reese Retallick, a junior from Rhinelander broke the tie with a goal in the second period, assisted by Mya Renkes. Medford (0-14-0, 0-7-0 Wis. Valley) answered with a power play goal from Zayleah Leonhardt, unassisted.

Northland Pines ended the second period with all the momentum. They scored two more times.

First, Mya Renkes had her own goal, assisted by Avery Renkes. Less than a minute later, Ella Koca scored with assists to Bella Nowak and Ayla Shepherdson.

The Eagles led 4-2 after two periods.

Northland Pines kept the pressure on in the final 17 minutes. Tomlanovich scored with the assist going to Bella Nowak. Tomlanovich from Bella Nowak netted another goal in the third period with Shepherdson also getting an assist.

Leonhardt got the hat trick for Medford with a late goal in the third period. Kara Kennedy was awarded the assist.

Avery Renkes scored with just six seconds left in the game to give the Eagles a new season high in goals scored.

Lucy Nowak made 16 saves in the net. Ellie Martens played the final 51 seconds in goal for the Eagles.

Northland Pines swept the regular season series against Medford by a combined score of 12-6.

“Going 2-0 is big against this team as far as conference wins and also when the seeding meeting comes around,” Stebbeds said. 

Northland Pines 3, Coulee Region 2

Last month, the Eagles and Cyclones (4-14-2, 0-2 Independent) tied at 1-1. That wasn’t the case on Saturday.

The Eagles scored all three of their goals in the second period to pick up a non-conference win.

“We put up three more big goals in a short period of time,” Stebbeds said. “That swung the momentum completely in our direction.”

Northland Pines scored twice in 10 seconds. First, Avery Renkes scored 1 minute, 15 seconds into the second period with the assist going to Mya Renkes.

Ten seconds later, Shepherdson put the puck in the net, assisted by Bella Nowak and Lilly Beitler.

The Eagles took a 2-0 lead early in the second period.

Avery Renkes extended Northland Pines’ lead to 3-0 with an unassisted goal. Northland Pines outshot Coulee Region 20-17 in the first 34 minutes of the game.

The Cyclones grabbed a bit of momentum late in the second period with a power play goal. Rylee Hoehn scored unassisted to cut into Northland Pines’ lead.

Northland Pines led 3-1 going to the third and final period.

The Cyclones dominated the third period in the shot department at 16-4. They made it a one-goal game when Hannah Korish scored, assisted by Sydney Cichosz 1:58 into the period.

The Eagles held onto the win, their second in as many games. Lucy Nowak made 31 saves as Coulee Region outshot Northland Pines 33-24.

Wisconsin Valley Union 4, Northland Pines 2

Wisconsin Valley Union (11-8-0, 5-4-0 Wis. Valley) took a page out of Northland Pines’ book by scoring three goals in one period to propel it to a victory.

Three goals given up in the first period were too much for Pines to overcome. Wisconsin Valley Union’s Evelyn Fleming, Campbell Spees and Lily Cichy all had goals. 

“(We) started slow and had to try and dig ourselves out of a hole again,” Stebbeds said. “The girls gave it their best.”

Pines, down 4-0, scored twice in the third period. Avery Renkes scored a power play goal with the assist to Jordyn Hahn. Later, Bella Nowak connected on a goal with the assist to Rhinelander freshman Lena Chiamulera.

Wisconsin Valley Union’s fourth goal came from Ellie Czaikowski. Maddie Bradley and Cichy had the assists. Cichy and Spees led all players with two points each.

A positive for Northland Pines came on their power play kill. They killed all four of Wisconsin Valley Union’s power play chances. WVU outshot Pines 50-21.

Lucy Nowak made 46 more saves. Her percentage came to .920. She’s now had a save percentage greater than .900 in eight of her last 10 games.

Up next, the Eagles take on Black River Falls (14-7-1, 6-1-0 Wis. Valley) tonight at Langlade County Fairgrounds in Antigo. The puck drops at 7 p.m.

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].