Hawks have their way against Hodag hockey

The Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team went into Tuesday’s non-conference tilt at home against Shawano/Bonduel hoping for a more competitive game than their 7-2 loss to the Hawks in late November.

What the Hodags found, instead, was a Shawano team that fired out of the gates and had matched its goal total from the first meeting by the time the first period ended.

The Hawks hung up seven goals on the Hodags in the first period and cruised to a 9-2 win over Rhinelander at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.

It was an inauspicious start to the final week of the regular season for the Hodags (1-21-0, 1-9-0-0 Great Northern), who were looking to build some momentum prior to a daunting WIAA playoff opener at Northland Pines next Thursday. 

“We just lost a lot of races early, and we couldn’t keep the puck out of our net. It was a combination of those two things,” Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. “Pucks that have got to stay out of the net couldn’t, and we just could not win a race, control the puck, make plays. Then we go through some periods that we lose our composure, and that’s something else we haven’t done in a while. I thought we were over that, but we did it tonight.”

The Hawks (14-10-0 independent) scored just 48 seconds into the contest on a Cameron Schroeder goal, and the hits just kept on coming for the Hodags. Gavin Hundt, who had a hat trick in the first meeting against Rhinelander, had two goals and two assists on Tuesday. Kielian Armbruster added a pair of goals and seven different players scored for Shawano. 

Shawano already led 5-0 by the midway point of the first, adding goals from Bryce Lammers, Armbruster, Blake Swedberg and Max Huntington by the 8:42 mark of the period. Power play goals by Hundt and Armbruster made it 7-0 after one. 

Hundt made it 8-0 just 55 seconds into the second period and Waylon Snider scored Shawano’s final goal at the 11:25 mark of the period. 

Shawano outshot Rhinelander 37-15 in the contest. Connor McGee made 28 saves in the loss. Kaiden Thornborrow had 14 saves for the Hawks, but was denied the shutout as Carson Plehn put the Hodags on the board, scoring off his own rebound with less than 53 seconds remaining in the contest. Drake Nelson recorded his team-best sixth assist of the season on the play.

“He’s a guy we’re really looking forward to step up and be an offensive threat, and he could be,” Laggis said of Plehn, whose fifth goal of the season tied him with three others for the team lead. “He’s got good hands and he’s deceptively fast, actually, and he’s a guy that you want to handle the puck and move up and make some plays. We’re really looking for him to do more of that. Drake fed him that puck and it was a nice shot. Happy that they were able to team up for a goal for sure. And it was a little bit of a good moment.” 

The Hodags wrapped up the regular season at home Thursday in a game against Chequamegon/Phillips that concluded after press time for today’s edition. 

Attention now turns to the WIAA playoffs where the Hodags drew GNC runner-up and top-seeded Northland Pines in the opening round. With Tomahawk elevated to D1 via the performance factor after winning last year’s D2 state title, and the majority of the GNC in the Hodags’ sectional bracket, the seeds shook out in a predictable manner at Sunday’s seeding meeting.

Behind Northland Pines were the teams with the third and fourth best overall records in the GNC, Mosinee and Antigo. Lakeland earned the four seed and a home date with Shawano in the opening round. Pacelli, Medford and Rhinelander rounded out the seeding order. 

Though the Hodags split the regular season series with the Raiders — with the loss coming in overtime on the road — Medford came into the seeding meeting fresh off a 5-3 win over Spooner and with a better overall résumé. 

“There just wasn’t much of an argument,” Laggis said. “We beat Medford the last time here and we took them to overtime there but, doggone it, they had tighter games earlier in the year and they had more wins overall, so there just wasn’t much of an argument. We are what we are and we’ve got to make the most out of our chance.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].