New Richmond passes by Medford in final

WIAA DIV. 2 BOYS HOCKEY

The opponent was different but the experience was pretty similar to last year Friday in Medford’s 11-0 WIAA Division 2 hockey regional loss at New Richmond.

Medford head coach Galen Searles said the Raiders again ran into a team that was impressive to watch as they carved up Medford’s defense to the tune of six firstperiod goals to put this one away early. The third-seeded Tigers advanced to a sectional semifinal Tuesday against second-seeded Superior, which they lost 4-3.

Sixth-seeded Medford finished the year 6-14-1.

“It was one of those cases where they were deceptively good,” Searles said. “Through the first few shifts I thought, ‘we can play with these guys.’ But as it went on, you could see they were just a strong team. Their passing accuracy reminded me of the Superior game last year (an 8-0 loss). It wasn’t just one guy on their team you had to stop. It was all of their guys. They were all equally good.”

Tucker Erickson, Caden McDonald, Ryder Flatten and Brock Unger all scored two goals for the Tigers, who had entered the game riding high after clinching the Middle Border Conference championship the previous weekend.

Flatten got his first one 1:16 into the game off a Reece Hubmer assist. Hubmer scored off assists from McDonald and Easton Schmit at the 7:40 mark. Things caved in on the Raiders starting with Erickson’s goal at 10:24, which was assisted by Brock Unger and Brayden Cunningham. Just 65 seconds later, Trenton Dorenbush lit the lamp off a Matthew Unger assist.

McDonald scored at 14:12 with an assist from Schmit and Erikson stung the Raiders with his second goal of the period with one second left with assists from Brock Unger and Mason Erickson.

New Richmond outshot Medford 26-5 in the period and added a 19-2 advantage in shots in the second period. The Tigers added three goals in that period to go up 9-0.

McDonald got the first one 2:12 in, while Brock Unger got his goals for the night at 5:33 and 10:05.

“Their passing just really stuck out to me,” Searles said. “It was tic-tac-toe. They were not missing any passes. They were relentless and had a deep bench, like most teams we play. When we got tired, they kept pounding away.”

Flatten scored a power-play goal 5:00 into the third, and Catcher Langeness scored the game’s final goal 10:05 into the period.

Medford finished with 10 shots on goal, five of which were stopped by New Richmond’s starting goalie Blake Milton in the first period. The last five were stopped by Marcus Stock in the last 34 minutes.

Ben Brunner had 46 saves for Medford during a busy night between the pipes.

“We had a couple of scoring opportunities,” Searles said. “We had one right at the very end where Carter Pernsteiner had a breakaway where we thought we could break the shutout.”

The cleanly-played game had just three penalties, all of which came in the third period. The Tigers were one for two on power plays. Medford was unsuccessful in one chance.

The loss ended a season that started with a lot of COVID-related uncertainty and the injury loss of senior Blaine Seidl, who was going to be the team’s goalie this Hockey

season, during the fall football campaign. The Raiders lost one of their top scoring seniors, Colton Gowey, as well early on.

But they did get six wins, several players got better and they made it through the year with no major illness issues.

“It’s pretty amazing that we got to play 21 games,” Searles said. “Not every school was able to do that. The kids got a lot of ice time. I think we improved. I think certain players improved significantly. Our freshmen learned what it’s like to compete at this level.”

He pointed to Kaden Kennedy and Noah Machon as two of the freshmen who made major strides.

“Our seniors did well,” Searles said. “Logan Searles, Warryck Leonhardt and Carter Pernsteiner played well for us all year. It’s definitely going to be different next year without Logan and Warryck on the blue line. I’ve already been thinking about it trying to figure out who we’re going to have on defense.”

Alex Gilbertson is the sixth senior who will graduate.

Searles said after taking a crash course in goal keeping this year, it’s Ben Brunner’s position to lose during his senior year and players like Miles Searles, Connor Gowey, Brayden Machon and Austin Stauffer give him confidence next year’s Raiders will have some scoring punch.

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