Leonhardt’s late goal caps Raiders’ win in offensive shootout

MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY

Warryck Leonhardt’s third-period power-play goal and Connor Gowey’s hat trick powered the Medford Raiders to their second hockey victory of the season in a 7-6 shootout with the host Shawano-Bonduel-Clintonville co-op Dec. 22.

Leonhardt’s goal 6:57 into the third period broke a 6-6 tie and was the Raiders’ first power-play goal of the season in its 15th chance.

From there, the Raiders limited the Hawks from getting good scoring chances and held on to improve to 2-5 overall heading into their long-awaited home opener Tuesday against Northland Pines. That game took place after this week’s early holiday deadline for The Star News.

Holding on meant finally shutting down Shawano forward Ryan Wegenke, who had a monster game by scoring all of his team’s goals, two in each period. He scored three in a row bridging the second and third periods to dig Shawano out of a 6-3 hole.

But Leonhardt broke that with assists from Logan Searles and Brayden Machon 52 seconds after the Hawks’ Louis Hrabik was sent to the penalty box for hooking.

Medford outshot Shawano 13-5 in the third period and 48-24 overall.

The Raiders never trailed but continually had to fight off responses from Wegenke and his teammates.

Gowey got his big night started with an unassisted goal just 1:04 in and Carter Pernsteiner made it 2-0, beating Shawano goalie Dylan Prochaska at 3:22 with a Miles Searles assist.

Wegenke scored at 6:57 with an Andrew Pussiant assist, but Medford came back with an Austin Stauffer goal at 10:08. Leonhardt and Gowey had the assists. Back came Wegenke at 12:16, scoring on Shawano’s first power play of the night with assists from Leland Jones and Ticeon Olson, making it 3-2.

Stauffer set up Gowey for his second goal to open a high-scoring second period. That tally came just 48 seconds in. Wegenke scored off a Karson Stoss assist at 7:43 to pull Shawano within 4-3.

Medford then grabbed the momentum with back-to-back scores. Stauffer got his ninth goal of the season at 10:49. It was unassisted. Gowey completed his hat trick at 12:46 off a Kaden Kennedy assist. Just when the Raiders were seemingly in control, a tripping penalty led to Wegenke’s power-play goal at 14:53 that made it 6-4.

Wegenke scored at 1:03 and 5:29 marks of the third to even the game at 6-6. Jones had the assist on the first goal and Pussiant assisted on the tying goal. But the tie lasted for just 78 seconds.

Ben Brunner collected 18 saves for Medford in the win. Prochaska had 41 saves, including 14 in the first period for Shawano, who fell to 2-5.

Tuesday’s tough test with Northland Pines started a five-game homestand for the Raiders. The Black River Falls Co-op is in for a non-conference game Tuesday, followed by the winless Tomahawk Hatchets on Jan. 7. Both games start at 7 p.m.