WIAA DIV. 2 HOCKEY - Mosinee quickly quiets any upset hopes Medford had in 9-1 final
WIAA DIV. 2 HOCKEY
Going in as a heavy underdog, the Medford Raiders went into Thursday’s WIAA Division 2 hockey regional final with a nothing-to-lose attitude. But it didn’t take too long for the second-seeded Mosinee Indians and reality to set in.
The Indians scored three times within the first five minutes and five times overall in the first period and skated to a 9-1 win over the seventh-seeded Raiders to advance to sectional competition. Medford’s season ended at 4-21.
Tyler Baars, Cooper Zastrow andMarek Kijonka all scored two goals apiece for Mosinee (16-9-1), who beat third-seeded Lakeland (9-12-3) by a score of 4-1 in Tuesday’s sectional semifinal. The Indians will play top-seeded Tomahawk (22-3) Friday night in Mosinee for the sectional championship and a spot in the March 6 state semifinals in Middleton.
Medford and Mosinee had recently played each other in Great Northern Conference competition on Jan. 28 and Feb. 4 with the Indians winning those games 10-0 and 7-0.
“We came out the first couple shifts pretty decent but once the one domino fell, it was hard to stop them all,” Medford head coach Klayton Kree said. “I thought we played a hard-fought game. We created a few chances. Grady Crass had a half breakaway. He and Tucker each hit the crossbar. I’m proud of the way they ended their season.”
Mosinee’s Noah Zebro got the first goal 2:16 into the game with assists from Brandon Rasmussen and Ben Backman. Goals 12 seconds apart at 4:30 and 4:42 put Medford in a tough 3-0 hole. Zastrow and Rasmussen got those goals. Another quick burst with goals at 10:07 and 10:28 made it 5-0. Kijonka and Elliot Yirkovsky got those goals, putting the Raiders in a deficit they weren’t realistically going to pull out of.
While Baars got his goals at the 4:17 and 10:20 marks of the second period, Phillips got Medford on the board in between them. His unassisted goal at 8:04 briefly made it a 6-1 game. For Phillips, it was his team-leading 16th goal of the season.
Zastrow and Kijonka closed the scoring with third period with goals at 8:34 and 13:25.
Senior Talan Albers recorded 44 saves in his final game with the Raiders. He faced 24 shots in the first period alone and 17 more in the second. Andrew Lingl had 11 saves for Mosinee. The Indians had the game’s only power play and did not score on it.
Forward Mason Harris and defenseman Logan Koski also played their last games as four-year seniors in the Medford program.
