MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY - Mosinee dominates Raider hockey

MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY

Mosinee’s Gavin Obremski scored four goals, Grant Kuklinski added two and the Indians outshot visiting Medford 61-13 in a 10-0 Great Northern Conference hockey final Tuesday night.

The Raiders didn’t have much of a chance to set any kind of tone as Mosinee camped in its offensive zone for the vast majority of the first period and put 33 shots on goal. Talan Albers did all he could to stop 29 of them for Medford but four different Indians slipped pucks into the back of the net for a 4-0 lead at the first intermission. Mosinee added three goals in each of the next two periods to secure its 10th win of the season. The 10-6 Indians improved to 3-3 in the GNC and jumped into fourth place in the standings with one GNC game remaining before the league tournament. Medford fell to 0-6 and 1-12 overall.

After a series of Albers saves and faceoffs in Medford’s defensive zone, Obremski got Mosinee on the board 4:12 into the game, carrying a puck from the boards toward the net and flipping it past Albers. At 7:56, the Indians quickly turned defense to offense getting a long pass from Danny DeCaluwe to Obremski at the blue line. He fed Tyler Baars in front of the net for the second goal.

Albers made a nice save on an oddman rush at the 9:00 mark, but Mosinee scored twice in a 42-second span to double its lead. The Indians turned a Medford turnover in its end into a Tucker Kowalski goal at 11:23 and then, just 24 seconds into a power play, Mosinee’s Elliot Yirkovksy slap shot through traffic.

The Indians struck quickly again in the second period, getting goals nine seconds apart. At 3:54, Grant Kuklinski won a faceoff and Jaeger Dhien flipped it into the net. Off the ensuing face-off, Kuklinski got open space and flicked a shot into the low corner under Albers’ left glove hand.

Obremski got his second goal 11:30 into the period and then got the first two goals of the third period at 1:23 and 5:36 with the last one coming on a power play. Kuklinski’s second goal was a short-hander at the 9:01 mark off a stolen pass on Medford’s end of the ice.

Albers finished with 51 saves, while Aiden Karst got all 13 saves to get the shutout for Mosinee. The Indians were two for four on power plays, while Medford did not score on three power plays.

Medford did not get the chance to play over the weekend as the Merrill-East tournament was canceled due to Friday’s winter storm. The Raiders will head to Park Falls tonight, Thursday, to face the Chequamegon Co-op at 6 p.m. Medford beat Team S.E.a.L. 10-2 back on Dec. 5 for its lone win so far this season. Medford will host the Altoona Co-op Friday at 7 p.m.

The round-robin portion of the GNC schedule concludes Tuesday with Medford hosting Lakeland at 7 p.m. Medford then heads to the Shawano Co-op Jan. 25 for a rematch of a Dec. 22 game won by the Hawks 5-2.