Playoff upset: Pines co-op knocks off WVU in overtime

The Northland Pines girls’ hockey co-op extended its season with a thrilling victory on Thursday, Feb. 19.

The fifth-seeded Eagles, comprised of skaters from Northland Pines, Rhinelander, Lakeland, Antigo, Three Lakes, Hurley and Norway (Mich.) high schools, defeated fourth-seeded Wisconsin Valley Union 4-3 in overtime in a regional final in Stevens Point.

 The Renkes sisters, Mya and Avery, teamed up to score the game-winning goal 5:29 into the extra session. Mya had the goal and Avery the assist. It all started with a pass from Rhinelander junior Reese Retallick, who finished with two assists in the contest.

“So proud of the kids,” Northland Pines coach Jeff Stebbeds said. “Valley Union beat us three times during the regular season between tournaments and just regular-season conference games, and they have a senior-stacked, junior-stacked team, and with us being so young, we’ve been slowly improving all season long and finally are starting to peak at the right time. The kids are really starting to come together as a team, and it’s just cool to see. How hard they work is literally shift by shift. They played that game and won it.”

Two separate comebacks from Wisconsin Valley Union (13-11-0, 5-4-0 Wis. Valley) sent the game to overtime. Valley Union rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 in the third period.

The win over Wisconsin Valley Union  was the first for Northland Pines (7-13-2, 2-7 Wis. Valley)  this season. Coming into Thursday’s playoff game, Northland Pines was 0-3 against Wisconsin Valley Union.

Northland Pines scored one goal each in the first two periods. In the first period, Jordyn Hahn found the back of the net with the assist to Avery Renkes.

Before they worked together to win the game, the Renkes sisters contributed to the Northland Pines co-op’s second goal. Avery got the goal and Mya the assist.

Wisconsin Valley Union tied the game in the third period. Evelyn Fleming connected on a goal with Campbell Spees rewarded with an assist.

Reese Simcakoski  tied the game for Wisconsin Valley Union. She scored with assists to Fleming and Kendall Baneck. The goal came with less than three minutes left in the game.

Less than a minute later, Northland Pines retook the lead. Hahn scored her second goal of the game on the power play. Laine Jelinski and Retallick both were awarded assists.

The back-and-forth play continued. Sixteen seconds after Hahn’s goal, Simcakoski tied the game again. Spees and Ellie Czaikowski got assists. Lucy Nowak ended up with 35 saves for the Eagles. In overtime, she was a perfect 5-for-5 in save opportunities. 

Up next, the Northland Pines co-op are taking on the Central Wisconsin Storm in a sectional semifinal game tonight. The Storm beat Northland Pines twice this season. The game will be played at 5 p.m. at Wausau’s Marathon Park.

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