A goal and a strong first period are bright spots in loss to Storm

MEDFORD GIRLS HOCKEY

The Medford Raiders didn’t strike down Goliath on Friday night, but at the very least, they made a little history in their 11-1 loss to the Central Wisconsin Storm at the Simek Recreation Center.

In the ninth meeting between the two programs, the Raiders got their firstever goal against the Storm at the 11:52 mark of the second period. It came off the stick of junior forward Skylier Krueger, who took a clearing pass from freshman Grace Schmidtfranz and got behind the Storm’s back line for a breakaway chance against the Storm’s goalie, Kaia Abuzzahab.

Krueger went top shelf with her shot, tucking it under the left corner and over Abuzzahab’s right shoulder for her second goal of the season. It was the first point of the year for Schmidtfranz.

At the time, it only cut the Storm’s wide lead to 7-1, but it was a moment the Raiders celebrated loudly.

Actually, the Raiders played a very good first period before wearing down in the second and losing some of their defensive positioning. The Storm –– consisting of players from D.C. Everest, Merrill, Mosinee, Wausau East and Wausau West –– took full advantage of those opportunities by scoring eight of their goals in a 17-minute span covering the end of the first period and most of the second.

The Storm improved to 14-3 for the season, while Medford sits at 1-10.

While the Raiders got just one shot on goal in the first period, they were solid on the defensive end, preventing open shots and rebounds for the most part. The Storm got their first goal at 8:19 on a power play when they were able to create some traffic in front of Raider goalie Alyssa Brandner. Hannah Baumann got her stick on the puck and trickled it past Brandner.

The Storm got a bit of a gift goal when Brandner was unable to clear a puck and Gianna Travis stole it and scored. The Storm finally got an open rebound at 15:45 as Samantha Federici banged the puck into the net off an initial shot by Baumann.

Medford got more going on the offensive end in the second period, putting five shots on Abuzzahab, but the floodgates opened on the other end of the rink.

Good passing by the Storm set up an easy tap in under Brandner’s glove for Baumann at 4:21. Federici got the assist. The Storm got immediate pressure off the ensuing face-off and Gabrielle du Vair scored 23 seconds later with another Federici assist to make it 5-0.

The Storm’s tic-tac-toe passing set up du Vair’s second goal with assists from Federici and Baumann at 7:31 and Tristan Wicklund banged home a onetimer off a Logan Crawford assist at 8:43.

After Krueger got her goal at 11:52, the Storm needed just 1:16 to answer as du Vair capped her hat trick, again with assists from Baumann and Federici. Mackenzie Bautch finished the scoring spree with a short-handed breakaway at 14:49.

Dru Sabatke and Baumann scored for the Storm in the third period.

Brandner finished with 41 saves that included 14 in each of the first two periods and 13 in the running-clock third. Abuzzahab had six for the Storm.

The Raiders had two power plays but were unable to score. The Storm was one for two.

Medford’s game at Northland Pines was postponed a week to this coming Monday, Jan. 31. The Raiders will test their stamina this weekend at the Beaver Dam tournament. With only three teams playing this year, a double round-robin is planned for the event with Medford, the Beaver Dam Co-op and the Baraboo Co-op playing each other twice Friday and Saturday.

Medford will meet the host Golden Beavers at 6 p.m. on Friday and play three games Saturday starting at 10 a.m.