Northland Pines gets its revenge in GNC 7th-place game
MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY
The first matchup of the season with Northland Pines may have produced the best win of the season for Medford’s hockey team. The second one, not so much.
The Eagles got their revenge for a 5-4 double-overtime loss to the Raiders on Jan. 25 by dominating Saturday’s seventh- place game of the Great Northern Conference tournament 8-2. The game was the first of four played Saturday at the Lakeland Ice Arena.
The Eagles scored the game’s first three goals and answered a second-period goal by Raider Miles Searles with a run of five more to finish their regular season at 4-17. Medford finished 6-15 with both teams going 1-9 in GNC games this winter.
The Eagles outshot Medford 51-15 to carry momentum in their WIAA Division 2 regional Friday at top-seeded Lakeland.
Logan Kramsvogel scored the game’s first goal 9:59 in with an assist from Andrew Hartwig. Roen McGee got the next one 12:56 into the first period, tapping in a rebound off a Patrick Roth shot. Zach Szafranski also was credited with an assist.
The Raiders played much of the second period short-handed thanks to an early head contact penalty and then a five-minute boarding major. Pines took advantage of the major with a Drew Christenson goal at the 5:09 mark. He was assisted by Kramsvogel and Szafranski.
The Raiders got the Searles goal during a five-on-three power play at 12:28 to provide hope of a comeback. Brayden Machon had the assist. But, at 14:47, Gaige Marion was able to get a shot to trickle through Raider goalie Ben Brunner and just over the goal line to give the Eagles a 4-1 lead heading into the third period. Szafranski had an assist on that goal as well.
Pines then broke it open in the third. Christenson got it started 46 seconds in with a Marion assist. McGee made it 6-1 at 1:33 with a Sam Warner assist. Kramsvogel got his second goal at 6:28 with a Roth assist and Hartwig made it 8-1 with an assist from Kramsvogel with 1:29 left.
Raider Connor Gowey capped the scoring with an unassisted short-handed goal with 45 seconds left.
Brunner had 43 saves during a busy outing in the crease. Eli Kerner had to make just 13 saves to collect the win. Medford served 29 penalty minutes on nine infractions, while five penalties cost the Eagles 10 minutes. Pines was just one for five on power plays, while Medford was one for two.
The Raiders are the sixth seed in their WIAA Division 2 sectional bracket and will visit a very good three-seed, the Amery Co-op (16-7), at 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, in a regional final. The winner will face either the seventh-seeded Burnett Blizzard Co-op (4-14) or secondseeded New Richmond (9-14) in a sectional semifinal Tuesday.
In the other three games at Lakeland Saturday, third-seeded Mosinee shut out top-seeded Lakeland 3-0 in the championship, however, Lakeland still won the overall title based on the GNC’s point system by one point over the Indians. Second-seeded Rhinelander beat fifthseeded Waupaca 4-1 in the third-place game and fourth-seeded Antigo got out to a 6-0 lead and held on for a 6-4 win over sixth-seeded Tomahawk in the fifth-place game.
The All-GNC teams for 2021-22 were also announced at Saturday’s event. Machon was Medford’s lone award winner, earning honorable mention.
