MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY - Third-period offense too little, too late for Raiders in 7th-place game
MEDFORD BOYS HOCKEY
The end of the season has not been kind to Medford’s hockey team, but the Raiders showed no quit Saturday, putting together a third-period offensive blitz in a 6-3 loss to Northland Pines in the seventh-place game of the Great Northern Conference tournament.
Down 5-0 to start the period, the Raiders outshot the Eagles 27-9 in the final 17 minutes and scored three goals. The Raiders had been active offensively before that, putting 25 shots on Eagle goaltender Evrett Leslie, but they couldn’t get anything by him in the first two periods.
That changed when Medford struck twice in a 46-second span early in the third. Cameron Bull got the first one, scoring at 4:46 with an assist from defensive mate Isaac Schaefer. Mason Harris got the next one with assists from Tucker Phillips and Schaefer to pull the Raiders within 5-2 with 11:28 still to play.
The Eagles, though, got the lead back to four with a Josh Graves goal at 8:49. Medford tacked on a final power-play goal with 30 seconds left with senior Noah Machon lighting the lamp, assisted by Kaden Kennedy and Bull.
The Raiders were one of five on power plays. Two Eagle penalties late in the first period gave Medford a 47-second five-onthree opportunity as part of 3:13 stretch of power-play hockey that went unfulfilled. As that ended, Medford drew its first penalty of the game and 21 seconds later, Eagle August Nordine converted the power- play chance giving Pines a 2-0 lead. His goal added on to a Tyler Busha goal that was scored 8:34 into the opening period.
The Nordine goal started a four-game burst for Pines in the second period. Carsen Saari scored 16 seconds later to make it 3-0 and Graves got one 1:29 after that. Graves scored a short-handed goal at 6:53 and his third period goal capped a hat trick for him.
Pines outshot Medford 15-10 in the first period and 18-13 in the second, but Medford’s third-period flurry gave the Raiders a 50-42 edge in shots on goal for the game.
Talan Albers had 36 saves in the loss, which dropped Medford to 0-10 in GNC games this season and 2-19 overall.
Medford is the seventh seed in the WIAA Division 2 Rice Lake sectional and will visit the second-seeded Amery Co-op (22-2) tonight, Thursday in a regional final matchup. The winner will face either sixth-seeded Spooner (5-15-1) or thirdseeded Hayward (11-11-1) in a sectional semifinal Tuesday.
