MEDFORD GIRLS HOCKEY - Opposing goalies shut down Raider girls

MEDFORD GIRLS HOCKEY

The Medford Raiders survived a first period where they were outshot 15-2 but they didn’t escape the second period where the Northland Pines Co-op did all of its damage in a 3-1 girls hockey win Monday in Eagle River.

The Eagles’ top scorer, Taylor Heleniak scored two of the goals, while Mia Tulowitzky added a power-play goal in between to lift the Pines Co-op to its second 3-1 win over Medford this season. The two teams will meet once more on Jan. 18 back in Eagle River.

Jenna Uhrine again was tough for Medford’s shooters to solve. After recording 22 saves in the first meeting on Dec. 12, Uhrine collected 14 saves on Monday, including seven in the second period and five in the third. She was 1:08 away from a shutout when Raider Kara Kennedy finally slipped a puck by her for an unassisted goal.

After Zayleah Leonhardt had 15 firstperiod saves to keep the Eagles off the board, Medford had an opportunity to jump ahead with the game’s first power play 33 seconds into the second period. That chance went unfulfilled. Heleniak then finally broke the ice at 6:50, scoring off a Mallory Schmidt assist.

Tulowitzky’s power-play goal came at 10:06 and was assisted by Emalee Detienne. Just 1:53 later, Heleniak delivered again with an unassisted breakaway score.

Leonhardt finished with 35 saves, adding 12 more in the third period.

The Pines Co-op now sits at 3-9 after losing 8-1 to the Hayward Co-op Tuesday night.

The 3-8 Raiders are at Black River Falls tonight, Thursday, for a 6 p.m. face-off with the Tigers and then host one of the state’s top-ranked team, the Superior Spartans, at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Beavers 5, Raiders 0

A much-improved Beaver Dam Co-op jumped ahead with a quick two-goal flurry in the first period and put things on ice with a two-goal third period en route to a 5-0 win over the Raiders Friday at the Simek Recreation Center.

The Golden Beavers improved to 6-6 the following day with a 5-2 win at Northland Pines. Their improvement is driven by junior goaltender Emily Swedema, who has a 92% save percentage and has allowed less than two goals per game. She had 17 saves in Beaver Dam’s shutout win Friday.

Leonhardt had 24 saves for Medford, who fell victim to two power-play goals by Emerson Damon in the loss.

“It was not our best performance unfortunately,” Medford head coach Tasha Schmidtfranz said. “We just couldn’t connect as a team.”

The visitors’ first-period goals, however, were both even-strength scores.

Lilian Mansueto got the first one at the 8:24 mark with assists from Emerson Damon and Addy Damon. Kylie Hackbarth made it 2-0 just 1:34 later with an assist from Ali Stanul.

The Beavers outshot Medford 12-9 in the first period and 9-6 in the second when Emerson Damon got her first power-play goal at 13:51. Damon got her second goal 9:09 into the third. Both were unassisted. Addy Damon added an unassisted goal at 12:17 to close the scoring.

Medford had two power-play chances in the loss. The Beavers were two for four.

Medford had won its last eight meetings against the Beaver Dam Co-op dating back to the 2019-20 season.