The Raider boy’s hockey (0-0-1) travelled to the Veterans Memorial Community Center in Inver Grove Heights on Thursday, December 8th for a Metro East Conference showdown against the Simley Spartans (21-0). Hastings had tied against Rochester Mayo, the Spartans beat Northern Edge and Red Wing, but had an 8-0 loss to Park of Cottage Grove. The Thursday night puck drop started at 7:00 and was the Raiders only game of the week.

Hastings jumpstarted the scoring with two goals in the first period. Mark DeNoyer scored his first goal of the season at 7:07 with Jon Harris and Joseph Iovino earning assists. Hastings added to their lead when Danny Millner scored unassisted at 14:34 in the first. Both Raider goals were even strength goals. With 1:13 left in the period, Simley cut the Raider lead in half with a goal by Justin Orn.

The second period was mostly uneventful with only two Hastings penalties, but no goals. The third period saw Hastings retake the two-goal lead with Eddie Peine connecting with Blake Vandehoef for his second goal of the season and Peine’s first points on the season on the assist.

Hastings was in total control of the third period until a five-minute major penalty was called for boarding at 14:06 into the period. Major penalties are particularly difficult on defenses because the entire five minutes are served regardless of any scores made by the power play team. Simley put on the pressure and kept the puck in the Raider zone for most of their man advantage. With 2:11 left in the game, Simley was whistled for a penalty, and it became four on four. Just as the Spartan skater was released from the box, Simley poked one over the head of Kody Niederkorn to make the game 3-2 Hastings which is where the game finished.

Hastings had a total of 27 shots on goal to Simley’s 23. Niederkorn stopped 21 of 23 shots for a .913 save percentage. On the year so far, he has a .921 save percentage and 2.32 goals against average.

“I think the story is going to be that Kody is going to need to make some big saves for us,” explained assistant coach Ryan Stoffel. “He needs to keep us in games and he's going to need to steal one for us from time to time. I thought he did a great job, his composure is awesome, he doesn't get rattled and he makes the saves he needs to make. Then he comes up with a few that he should not make and, again, keeps us in the game. That last goal that they scored with, like 10 seconds left, that was just a weird thing that bounced over some traffic.”

The Raiders had 15 penalty minutes on six infractions, the Spartans went to the penalty box for four minutes on two infractions. With one of the Simley penalties occurring within the five-minute major penalty for Hastings, the Spartans were on the power play seven different times, scoring once. Hastings was 0-for-1 on the power play.

“It was a really great team effort tonight,” said Stoffel. “We had sustained some penalty kills late, huge, blocked shots late, Mark Denoyer scores a goal for us right away and gets us going, we played a really good first period and then kind of just followed suit the next two.”

With the win, Hastings moved into a five-way tie for first place in the MEC. Conference games are the only games that count in the standings and that means the standings will shake out in the next couple of weeks.

The Raiders have three games this week. Tuesday, they traveled to Anoka, Thursday, they will travel to Rochester Century for a 7:15 p.m. puck drop and Saturday, they return home for a 3:00 p.m. start against Hill-Murray. After the Hill-Murray game, Hastings will play four consecutive on the road. Dec 22, at Dodge County, Dec 29, at South St. Paul, Jan 3 at Farmington and Jan 5 at Eagan. Three of the four games are at 7:00 p.m. with the South St. Paul game at 5:00 p.m. Hastings will return to the Mc-Gree East Rink to take on St. Louis Park on January 11 at 7:30 p.m. Hastings will spend 25 days with no home games but will finish the season with nine of fifteen at home.

There is one correction needing to be made from last week’s story. There was a misunderstanding on the new varsity players and the week being full of firsts for them. Blake Vandehoef is a returning Varsity player with the most points of all returning players this year. Last week was not his first varsity goal or first Varsity points, but it was his first points of the season.