A win is a win and Raiders will take it ; Tigers, T-Birds get shutouts

For whatever reason, the Park Falls Ice Arena does not always bring out the best in Medford’s hockey teams. But, more often than not in recent years, the Raiders do escape the building with wins.

Tuesday was no exception as Tucker Phillips’ hat trick led the Raiders to their first win of the season, a 5-2 triumph over the Chequamegon Co-op. Grady Crass and Cole Pernsteiner added goals and Talan Albers had 28 saves as Medford improved to 1-4 overall and earned the program’s ninth win in its last 11 games with Team S.E.a.L.

“Not our best game by far, but we found a way to get it done,” was how Medford head coach Klayton Kree summed up the win.

The Raiders were outshot 11-7 in the opening and gave up the game’s first goal, which was scored by Team S.E.a.L.’s Frank Kief with an assist by Will Krause, 13:04 in. It took the Raiders just 48 seconds to answer with an unassisted goal from Phillips. The junior gave Medford the lead 8:06 into the second period with help from a Mason Harris assist. But, again, Chequamegon (0-4) controlled play for stretches of the period and outshot the Raiders 16-7.

Kree said the team found its stride in the third period. Outshooting Chequamegon 12-3 in the period, the Raiders fired the first shot just 26 seconds in when Crass, a freshman, got his first varsity goal with assists from Phillips and fellow freshman Tanner Hubbard.

Pernsteiner got an unassisted goal just 1:04 later to make it 4-1. That’s where the scored stayed until the home stretch. Kalan Chuzles put one in for Chequamegon at 14:21 with a Krause assist, but Phillips came back with his third goal, an empty-netter assisted by Gavin Phillips with 28 seconds left in the game.

There were no power-play goals in the game. Medford was whistled for four penalties and Chequamegon had three. Nick Pesko had 21 saves for the home team.

The Raiders get back into Great Northern Conference play tonight, Thursday, when they host Antigo at 7 p.m. at the Simek Recreation Center. The Red Robins have been dealing with some injuries and suspensions to start the season but have won their last two games to come in at 2-3 overall.

Medford then hits the road for nonconference games at Rice Lake at 3 p.m. Saturday and Shawano-Bonduel at 7 p.m. Tuesday. On Dec. 19, Medford has a GNC battle at Tomahawk, the top-ranked Division 2 team in the state.

Tigers 5, Raiders 0

Five different players scored goals Friday for Marshfield, who spoiled Medford’s home opener with a 5-0 shutout win.

The Tigers scored twice in the first period, including one with just 43 seconds left. It stayed 2-0 well into the third before Marshfield doubled its lead over a span of about seven minutes bridging the second and third periods.

Marshfield got its first win of the season after starting with four straight losses.

Wyatt Fischer put Marshfield on the board with an unassisted goal 8:29 into the opening period. Last-minute goals can be momentum killers for those who give them up and the Tigers hit Medford with one with 43 seconds left in the second period to go up 2-0. Joey Cashmer got it off a Cole Kenney assist.

Kenney ended the game’s long scoreless streak 14:18 into the second period with help from a Blake Meissner assist. Owen Hoerneman got Marshfield’s fourth goal early in the third, at 4:13, assisted by Kenney and Cashton Anderson. Meissner’s unassisted goal at 11:02 closed the scoring.

The Raiders were able to generate some offense in the contest but were unable to push any of their 20 shots on goal past Marshfield’s Rahul Dissanayake. The Raiders had 11 of those shots in the third period. Albers stopped 16 of the 18 shots he faced in the first period and 11 of 12 in the second on his way to 30 saves.

Lakeland 5, Medford 0

On Thursday, Medford hung tough with one of the defending Great Northern Conference co-champions from a year ago, but a Dominic Gironella hat trick and two goals in a 42-second span late pushed the host Lakeland Thunderbirds to a 5-0 win in the league opener for both teams.

Gironella’s three goals gave Lakeland a 3-0 lead midway through the second period. He got one 9:28 into the first period, assisted by Lawson Bain and got his second at 13:45 unassisted. Gironella scored his third goal 12:08 into the second period with another Bain assist.

Kree said the Raiders thought they had cut the lead to 3-1 on what appeared to be a power-play goal on a well-executed play by Tucker Phillips, Crass and Hubbard. But the goal was disallowed by the officials who ruled the net was off at the time of the goal.

Aaron Wanta and Brent Olson scored for Lakeland at the 9:14 and 9:56 marks of the third period to put it away.

The T-Birds outshot Medford 51-12 with Albers collecting 46 saves. Cam Bernard had 12 saves in his shutout victory for Lakeland. Both teams had four power plays, but all of them were killed off by their opponents.