Raiders can’t answer 3-goal surge by the Comets
MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY
A solid effort Friday by the Medford Raiders was foiled by a four-minute stretch of the second period where the Waupaca Comets did all of their damage while earning a 3-0 win at the Simek Recreation Center. The game was scoreless for just over 29 minutes but Liam Bloedow’s tiebreaking goal at the 12:04 mark of the second period set off a three-goal run that included two tallies from Comet Braeden Ryan and sent the visitors home with a 2-0 Great Northern Conference record. Medford dropped its fifth straight game and fell to 0-3 in the GNC and 1-6 overall.
“Our passing tonight looked a lot better,” Medford head coach Galen Searles said after the loss. “It looked more like it has in the games we’ve played well in where the guys are picking up their heads. Ben Brunner was solid and we did have a couple of scoring opportunities.”
Brunner had 28 saves in the loss, including 12 in the first period. Waupaca outshot Medford 12-7 in a quick-moving first 17 minutes that featured no penalties and few stoppages in play.
“I thought there was a period in the first where we were outplaying them,” Searles said. “We have to take advantage of that when we can.”
The second period has been tough for Medford this year with 26 of the team’s 51 goals allowed coming in the middle 17 minutes. The Raiders were outshot 12-4 in Friday’s second period, though Medford did have two good opportunities. Waupaca goalie Hagen Rasmussen was just able to make a pad save on a shot by Brayden Machon and Connor Gowey shot just wide on a breakaway one-on-one opportunity against Rasmussen.
“It looked like their goalie was giving up a couple of rebounds,” Searles said. “I was telling the guys to crash the net, there’s stuff there. But he made some nice key saves when he needed to.”
Waupaca finally broke the ice when Warren Carlson secured the puck after a brief battle for control of it in Medford’s defensive zone and flipped it out front to Bloedow, who deked Brunner out of position enough to get an open side of the net to shoot into.
At 15:01, Ryan cleaned up a rebound with assists being credited to Levi Olson and Max Gusmer. Waupaca’s second power-play chance of the period resulted in Ryan’s unassisted goal at 16:01.
Searles said there is a likely reason for Medford’s second-period struggles, especially during the team’s recent fivegame homestand.
“The difference between the second period and the other ones is it’s the long change period because you’ve got the goalie on the far end of the rink,” he said. “With our short bench, if our shifts are as long or longer than in the first period, then we end up getting trapped in our end a lot and then we get scored on. Of course, the penalties don’t help. We’ve talked about trying to manage our shifts a little better in the second periods.”
No goals were scored in a third period that got a bit chippy. Both teams were hit with a major penalty over the last 19 minutes.
Rasmussen had 14 saves for the Comets, while Brody Berens added three more in the last 6:13. The Raiders had just one power play in the game and killed three of Waupaca’s four power plays.
