MEDFORD GIRLS HOCKEY - Positive vibes on the ice for Raiders to end regular season

MEDFORD GIRLS HOCKEY

Their record might not show it, but the Medford Raider girls have played some pretty solid hockey since the holidays and they’ll head into WIAA post-season play tonight with a two-game winning streak to end the regular season as their reward.

The Raiders followed up a 2-1 upset win at Beaver Dam Feb. 2 with a 6-0 shutout win over the Viroqua Co-op Thursday at the Simek Recreation Center, led by two third-period goals from Kara Kennedy and 18 saves from goalie Zayleah Leonhardt in her second shutout of the season.

The 5-13 and sixth-seeded Raiders head north today, Thursday, to take on the third-seeded Hayward Co-op in a WIAA regional final that starts at 4:30 p.m. and starts a WIAA girls/boys tournament doubleheader at the Hayward Sports Center.

“We’re coming out strong here at the end of the season,” Medford head coach Tasha Schmidtfranz said. “I was super impressed at Beaver Dam. We lost 5-0 to them the first time, then we got the win. And the girls just carried that momentum tonight. They did it all. They’ve been putting in the hard work and it’s paying off. It’s been a lot of fun for sure.”

Defensively the Raiders kept solid positioning throughout the game. Leonhardt made several glove saves and was never really threatened to be scored upon with the possible exception of a first-period shot that she didn’t see sliding at her from her left side until right before it got to her. She had five first-period saves, six secondperiod saves and seven more in the third when the Blackhawks (2-19-1) did get a little more late pressure going.

“Z was on fire,” Schmidtfranz said. “Fantastic game by her. A lot of nice saves. It was the whole team. It was a team effort for sure.”

As it turned out, the only goal Medford would need came early at the 2:29 mark of the first period. Jaylin Machon carried the puck through traffic along the right boards. She dumped the puck toward the end boards and it bounced right back to her as she approached the net and she punched it past Blackhawk goalie Adey Oliver for the goal.

Oliver stopped consecutive shots by Victoria Konieczny and the ensuing scramble resulted in a slashing penalty on Grace Schmidtfranz that started a stretch of three penalties on the Raiders that had them short-handed for almost six straight minutes.

The Raiders killed off all three penalties, then took advantage of Viroqua’s first penalty with a Schmidtfranz power-play blast 5:55 into the second period and from there, the energy was on the Raiders’ side.

Tasha Schmidtfranz said penalty kill has been one of Medford’s biggest struggles this season, but they excelled at it in this game.

“We had six (penalties) tonight. That’s rough,” she said. “But the girls played a much better penalty kill. It looked really good.”

At the 9:53 mark of the period, Konieczny put a shot on Oliver that she stopped but also bobbled while trying to glove it and Emily Kiselicka was the first Raider on the spot to clean up in front of the net to make it 3-0.

At 13:41, Kelli Petrick sent a blast from the blue line that Konieczny redirected past Oliver for a 4-0 lead. Lilyana Kujawa was also credited with an assist for her first point of the season.

Kennedy put the exclamation point on the win in the third period. At 6:09, she got the puck from Carly Koski, carried it a short distance and hit the top shelf for her fifth goal of the season and Koski’s first assist. On a power play at 9:51, Koski kept the puck in the zone, got it to Konieczny who sent it on net and Kennedy was there at the post to tap it in.

The Raiders outshot the Blackhawks 28-18 and killed five Viroqua power plays while going two for three on theirs.

“It was a lot of fun, they’re really coming together,” Tasha Schmidtfranz said. “It’s been good.”

If Medford can pull off the upset at Hayward (14-8), who beat the Raiders 8-0 back on Nov. 28, the team would advance to a sectional semifinal Tuesday at D.C. Everest against the second-seeded Central Wisconsin Storm (18-4-1). The Storm beat the Raiders 8-1 two days after Medford’s loss to Hayward.