MEDFORD GIRLS HOCKEY BUILDING SOME MOMENTUM - Scoring chances aplenty in a win and a tie

MEDFORD GIRLS HOCKEY

BUILDING SOME MOMENTUM

After five straight losses to the Northland Pines Co-op over this season and last, Medford’s girls hockey team decided that streak had to end Tuesday.

Zayleah Leonhardt scored twice, including the game-winner with 4:56 into the third period, Tori Konieczny added a goal and Chloe Pipkorn had 23 saves as the Raiders downed the Eagles 3-2 in the team’s second thrilling game at the Simek Center in four days.

“It’s like a chip off our shoulder, a monkey off our back,” said Konieczny, one of six seniors on the squad looking to make some noise in the last month of the season. “We knew we could do it and we finally did.”

Leonhardt’s go-ahead goal came on a low one-timer from the slot that got under the left-hand glove of Eagle goalie Lucy Nowak. Konieczny made the pass from the corner and Emily Kiselicka got the second assist, winning the battle with an opponent to keep the puck in the offensive zone and getting it to Konieczny.

“It was a good game,” Medford head coach Tasha Schmidtfranz said. “A lot of great passing, a lot of good shots on goal. We’re still working. A few times we just couldn’t keep the puck on our sticks and there were a couple of sloppy passes, but it was a really good game.”

The games with the Pines Co-op this year and last have generally been close. The Eagles won all three last year, won the first two this year, including the first one in overtime.

The difference in this year’s games has been that Medford has been the team creating more offensive chances, including 46 shots on goal in a 7-4 loss on Dec. 17. Leonhardt’s move from goalie to forward this year certainly has made an offensive difference and now that the team has settled into its lines and rotations, the Raiders, who are now 5-7-2 combining their varsity and JV games, like their chances to add some wins heading into the home stretch.

“It’s established a sense of chemistry with who you’re playing,” Kiselicka said. “It’s easier to sense what they’re going to do. So it’s a little quicker every time making passes, making plays and looking for the opportunities.”

Medford got on the board quickly Tuesday, with Leonhardt scoring 2:20 in. The junior got just enough of the puck to sneak it inside the post while taking a pass from Kiselicka. Konieczny and Kara Kennedy won possession of the puck behind the net to set it up.

The Raiders outshot the Eagles 10-8 in the first period. Pines tied it at 12:41 when an Avery Rankes fired a shot just the inside of the post to Pipkorn’s right.

After blowing a 4-0 lead and settling for a tie Saturday against the Stoughton Coop, the seniors said they were anxious to get back on the ice.

“It kind of left a bad taste in our mouth,” Konieczny said. “We came out here hot and ready to go. We were ready to win.”

The Eagles took a 2-1 lead 2:08 into the second period, getting a rebound powerplay goal from Ava Carrillo. The Raiders just missed on some passes and on a handful of shots in the period. But, they finally got the equalizer with 26 seconds left when Leonhardt weaved through traffic and set up Konieczny at the doorstep.

“Honestly, Z did a really great job of maneuvering through,” Konieczny said. “She drew the goalie over and she passed it to me and there was nothing there. I pretty much just had to stand there and tap it in.”

Nowak had 34 saves for Pines, who fell to 3-11. The Eagles and Raiders are likely battling for the fifth seed in next month’s six-team WIAA sectional bracket.

“This definitely helps us for later in the season with seeding,” Kiselicka said.

Medford is back on home ice Friday at 6 p.m., making up a Dec. 19 postponement by hosting the Eau Claire Area Stars. The Raiders will face the defending state champion Central Wisconsin Storm Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Marathon Park in Wausau.

“I hope we finish (the season) with a bang,” Kiselicka said. “We still have a couple of big games yet.”

Raiders 4, Icebergs 4

Saturday at the Simek Center, Medford played two of its best periods of the season while building what seemed to be a comfortable 4-0 lead over the Stoughton Co-op Icebergs.

Things, however, got uncomfortable when the Icebergs rallied with four goals in the third period to send the game into overtime. Both teams had their chances, but after two overtime periods, the teams settled for a 4-4 tie.

“I can’t be upset,” coach Schmidtfranz said. “We got 40 shots on goal. They got a few cheap ones on us in that third period, but in the overtime we played well. We killed off a ton of penalties. They were a physical team.”

Most of the way, the game played out just how Medford envisioned when the season began with the Raiders controlling the puck in their offensive zone and limiting their opponent’s offensive opportunities. The Raiders played with the lead almost immediately as Kara Kennedy scored just 2:12 in and a threegoal second period –– one by Kennedy and two from Leonhardt –– seemed to put it away.

On the first goal, Leonhardt came away with the puck along the left boards, carried it into offensive zone and passed right to Kennedy who had skated ahead of the defense. She tucked the puck inside the far post.

Kennedy’s accuracy was perfect again on her second goal, where she went through the five-hole on Iceberg goalie Anika Mueller off a pass from Konieczny 7:24 into the second period. At 12:02, as Medford was short-handed, Konieczny picked up a loose puck and took off with it toward the Stoughton net. She got tripped along the way, but Leonhardt was in the right spot at the right time. She picked up the puck, took it behind the net, then came back to her left out in front and roofed a shot over Mueller’s shoulder for a pretty unassisted goal to make it 3-0.

With 24 seconds left in the period, Konieczny won a face-off and Leonhardt absolutely blistered a one-timer past Mueller for a power-play goal.

“That line is really coming together,” Schmidtfranz said of the combination of Leonhardt, Konieczny and Kennedy. “Our second line is too. They’re starting to cycle around way better and find their groove. We have a couple of younger ones on that line.”

Through two periods, the Raiders outshot the Icebergs 16-6. The Raiders got 14 more shots in the third period, including some great chances in the crease area, put couldn’t put any of them home and that left the door open for the visitors.

“Every single goal had an assist,” Schmidtfranz said. “It just was a very nice team effort. We’re working well together. We just have to find the back of the net a few more times.”

Stoughton finally broke the ice at 4:45 when Kaydence Henke’s shot from the blue line was deflected in by Izzy Nellen. The Icebergs got a couple of what the Raiders would consider fluke goals 24 seconds apart from Ashlyn Bartels and Brooklyn Kohr and, just like that with 10:03 still left, it was 4-3.

To the credit of Pipkorn, she was solid the rest of the way, making some big saves at the end of regulation and in the overtime. The Icebergs did earn the tying goal with 1:38 left, crashing the net on a rebound opportunity with Nellen getting the score.

“Chloe’s worked really hard this year,” Konieczny said. “You’re asking a lot for a person to come out and play goalie for one year and face these big Hayward Co-ops, Stoughton, Pines. She’s really holding her own.”

In the first eight-minute overtime, Leonhardt had the first good chance 45 seconds in, but Mueller closed up the fivehole just in time. After the Raiders killed off a penalty, Kennedy put a hard shot on goal 4:55 in that was stopped. The Raiders were hit with four minutes of penalties at 5:54, and Medford was saved by the crossbar at 6:50 on a Stoughton breakaway and the Raiders cleared the puck before the Icebergs could get to the rebound. Pipkorn made solid saves on shots by Bartels and Henke in the first 80 seconds of the second overtime, a fiveminute period of four-on-four hockey when the teams were at full strength. Mueller made a pad save on Konieczny after Stoughton turned the puck over.

The Icebergs got another power play at 3:22 and immediately got a shot on goal that was stopped and 25 seconds later, Pipkorn made another save where Medford was fortunate there was no rebounder near the crease. A checking penalty on Stoughton put the teams in three-on-three hockey for the last 58 seconds. Kiselicka got a hard shot that Mueller stopped and Carly Koski sent in two shot hoping for a potential rebound, but that chance didn’t materialize.

Medford finished with a 40-26 advantage in shots on goal. Despite a plethora of penalties, especially late, Medford got the only power-play goal in five chances. The Icebergs had eight power plays “I was nervous about overtime after we kept getting penalties,” Schmidtfranz said. “Chloe’s really developing. She had 22 saves today. They got 12 shots on her just in the overtime. Otherwise they didn’t have many shots. She saved us big-time in OT.”

“We could’ve played better at times, but in the end we definitely came together and, in OT, worked well together, like we started,” Kiselicka said. “It was good to start and end on a good note.”

The teams will have a rematch in Stoughton on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

“A lot of good things seen in this game, a lot of good passing,” Schmidtfranz said. “Overall we played well. We’ll take a tie over an L I guess.”

Sabers 9, Raiders 1

On Jan. 7, Medford into a Chippewa Falls-Menomonie team that got hot offensively, scoring four goals in the first period and five more in the second to bury the Raiders 9-1.

Leonhardt’s unassisted goal at the 10:49 mark of the first period tied the game at 1-1, but the deadlock lasted for only 51 seconds. The Sabers’ Avery Lindstrom scored at 11:40, Allison Xu scored off a Lindstrom assist 1:18 after that and 1:06 after that, Lindstom scored again to make it 4-1.

Olivia Herr scored her second goal of the game 3:23 into the second period, then another quick flurry really put the game out of reach as Addisyn Buesgen scored at 5:02, Xu got her second goal 1:06 later and just 16 seconds after that, Buesgen got her second goal to make it 8-1. Taylor Geissler closed the scoring with her only goal at 13:36, assisted by Xu.

Medford put 16 shots on Chippewa Falls-Menomonie goalie Aubrie Dowd. Pipkorn stopped 23 shots in the loss. The Raiders did not commit a penalty in the game and were unsuccessful on three power plays, one in each period.

Medford’s Madison Mattke weaves through the Stoughton Co-op defense as the Raiders make an offensive push into the Icebergs’ zone during the second overtime period of Saturday’s intenst 4-4 tie. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS