Lakeland, Tomahawk earn high-scoring wins over the Raiders

MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY

Four players scored two goals apiece in the Lakeland Thunderbirds’ 10-3 win over the Medford Raiders Tuesday night in Minocqua.

The T-Birds jumped into the points lead in the Great Northern Conference standings by improving to 4-1 in league play and 6-2 overall. Lakeland took a 5-0 lead before Medford got on the board and tried to claw back into it for a moment in the second period.

But the T-Birds were just too strong offensively for the Raiders, who fell to 0-5 in the GNC and 3-9 overall.

“The boys played well against a solid team,” Medford head coach Galen Searles said.

The Raiders had one big highlight as junior forward Jacob Noland scored his first varsity goal at the 10:21 mark of the second period to break up Lakeland’s shutout bid. Cameron Bull and Connor Gowey had the assists. Lakelandpushed the lead back to five at 14:25 on a Brayden Warchol goal, but Medford got another one with 33 seconds left in the period with junior Miles Searles lighting the lamp off a Brayden Machon assist. The 6-2 score lasted for just 19 seconds as Warchol scored again with 14 seconds left in the period.

A power-play goal by T-Bird Gray Wagner just 1:25 into the third made it 8-2 and put the running clock into effect. Wagner scored again at 5:29 and AJ Pairolero added the clincher on another power play with 13:52 before Machon scored for the Raiders with a Mason Harris assist at 14:08.

Freshman Talan Albers got the start in goal for the Raiders and he got plenty of action, stopping 13 first-period shots. Lakeland got two goals from Teag Wagner in the period, while the T-Birds’ first goal was a short-hander 6:04 into the game from JJ Albee off a Cooper Fink assist. Wagner’s first goal came on a power play at 7:57.

Fink scored at 3:46 and 6:24 of the second period to make it 5-0. Albers stopped 13 of the 17 shots Lakeland put on net in the period. He finished with 28 saves.

Medford put 14 shots on goal in the game, 10 of which were stopped by Andrew Maulson in 45 minutes of net time. Max Masayesva had one save in six minutes.

The Raiders will next take part in a weekend tournament in Merrill. In Friday’s semifinal round, Medford will play host Merrill-Wausau East at 6 p.m. Rhinelander and Painesdale-Jeffers, Mich. will follow at about 8 p.m. The consolation game is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday, followed by the championship at 1 p.m.

Rhinelander will be Medford’s next GNC opponent on Tuesday. The Hodags and Raiders will square off at 7 p.m. at Medford’s Simek Recreation Center.

Hatchets 8, Raiders 6

In Thursday’s battle to escape the Great Northern Conference basement, the host Tomahawk Hatchets broke open a close game with three power-play goals and then held off a late rally by the Raiders in a wild 8-6 shootout at Sara Park.

Tomahawk led 6-1 after two periods, but Medford scored five times in the third to make things a bit interesting down the stretch.

The game turned on a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind on the Raiders. At the time, nearing the midpoint of the second period, Tomahawk led 2-0 on an Austin Lamer goal 9:59 into the first period and a Scout Stromberg goal 3:12 into the second.

The major penalty was enforced at 7:24 just as the Raiders were successfully killing off a two-minute minor. At 9:15 Caleb Dickens put the Hatchets up 3-0 with an assist from Ben Schertz. At 10:06 Dickens scored again with assists from Sawyer Hanna and Zack Friske. Hanna got the third one of the power play at 12:05 with assists from Dickens and Mitch Jimenez.

Medford went on the power play at 12:31 and needed just 26 seconds to score, getting an unassisted goal from defenseman Cameron Bull. But Schertz countered that with a goal of his own at 14:06, assisted by Lamer and Jimenez, to put Tomahawk back up by five.

Tomahawk outshot Medford 15-7 in the pivotal second period. Medford’s two penalties in the period were the only ones called against the Raiders in the game.

On his way to his second hat trick of the season, Medford senior Brayden Machon scored twice in a 42-second span, at 7:17 and 7:59, to get the Raiders within 6-3. Miles Searles assisted on the first goal and Connor Gowey and Isaac Schaefer assisted on the second.

But Tomahawk put the game out of realistic reach with two goals in a span of 1:45 scored by Brayden Larson at 8:30 and Ty Anthes at 10:15.

Bull got his second goal of the night at 11:58, Schaefer got his first of the season at 12:36 with a Noah Machon assist and Brayden Machon got his third goal of the period at 13:46 with another Searles assist.

Medford was one for six on power plays in the loss.

Tomahawk outshot the Raiders 3427. Ben Brunner had 26 saves for the Raiders, while Tomahawk’s Trevor Seliskar had 21 saves in net for the Hatchets, who improved to 2-2 in the GNC and 5-6 overall with a 10-4 rout of Northland Pines on Tuesday. The Eagles, in a hockey rarity, are winless in their first three GNC contests.