The Raiders boys hockey team entered the week at 13-9-1 with two games left in the regular season, Thursday against the South St. Paul Packers and Saturday against the Tartan Titans. The game against the Packers was a solid back-and-forth effort from both teams and the Senior Night game against Tartan was a dominant want to finish the regular season.
Against South St. Paul, Hastings took the early lead when Brayden Krauth scored at 2:20 into the first. Krauth was assisted by Brody Carlson and Lukas Niederkorn. Hasting took the 10-7 shots on goal lead and the 1-0 score lead into the first intermission.
The second period has been a tough period for both Raider hockey teams as of late, and that trend carried into the boys game Thursday.
“It shouldn't,” said head coach Matt Klein about the second-period woes. “If you're really good and you're moving the puck well. We just didn't move the puck well in the second period. So, if you're moving the puck, well, it's an added benefit because you have more space to be good. It just wasn't our best second period.”
The Packers scored twice in the first five and a half minutes to take the lead 2-0, both on power plays. Penalties can cause issues for teams and the Raider's defense was keeping South St. Paul at bay all night, except on two of the three powerplays the Packers had. The game stayed in the Packers favor until Johnny Teigland and Brody Geib connected with Conner Zgoda at 9:32 to take the game to the second intermission tied at two.
The third period was controlled well by Hastings and at 9:34 Ryder Regenscheid gave the Raiders the lead for good. Regenscheid was assisted by Carlson and Blake Vandehoef. Zgoda tacked on an unassisted empty net with 21 seconds remaining in the game.
Hastings had 27 total shots on goal to South St. Paul’s 24. Of the 24 shots faced, Brooks Smyrski logged the win with a .917 save percentage. Hastings was successful on only one of the three penalty kills they faced, and they were unable to capitalize on the one power play they had.
On Saturday, the Raider hosted the Tartan Titans and that game was a much simpler game on senior night.
“Saturday is all about senior night, and we're going to let our seniors play a ton,” said a proud coach Klein. “I think our section seeding is pretty locked where we are. So, we'll be playing on Tuesday at home.”
The Raiders celebrated their 12 seniors with a touching ceremony half an hour before game time. Senior night is always an emotional moment for parents, coaches, and even reporters. This is the group of kids that after four seasons of coverage, you have a lot of equity with, especially with most of them being multi-sport athletes.
After the pride-filled tears dried up in the arena, there was still a hockey game to play and Hastings wasted little time taking control. Jon Harris found lace at 6:33 into the first with the help of Devin Plank and Connor Zgoda. Then Harris set up Blake Vandehoef for the second goal of the game at 12:03 in the first.
Hastings did not let up in the second scoring three more times. Vandehoef logged a second goal with assists going to Harris and Plank, Then Vandehoef returned the favor setting up Harris and finally, Zgoda found the back of the net thanks to Ben Thome and Johnny Teigland.
The third period had no scoring and Hastings blanked the Titans 5-0 to finish the regular season 15-9-1 overall and 6-6 in conference play. Against Tartan, the Raiders outshot the Titans 33-17. Ryan Clemens logged the shutout in the net. There were four penalties for eight minutes, each team had two. Hastings scored on one powerplay.
Coach Klein was correct with his seeding comment, the Raiders did indeed fall back to the eighth seed as predicted. Given there are nine teams in the section, there was a one-time play-in game between the eighth-seeded Raiders and the ninth-seeded Apple Valley Eagles. The last time these two teams met was back on Jan. 27 at the SCHEELS Rink at United Heroes League. The outdoor game was a thrilling back-and-forth affair. Hastings took the early lead, the Eagles tied it then took the lead and Hastings came from behind to win in overtime, 3-2. Hastings took the ice after this publication was printed so check back next week for a recap.
What can be explained is that if the Raiders won that game, they will play Eastview at the Apple Valley Sports Arena on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7:00 p.m. If Apple Valley won, the Raiders season is over. We will be sure to let you know of the results as soon as possible on our Facebook page, just search “Hastings Journal”.
The road to state will not be easy, win 2/20 against the ninth seed, then win 2/22 against the number one seed. If they can pull that off, they will face the winner of Park of Cottage Grove (4) and Cretin-Derham Hall (5) on 2/26. The other side of the bracket is no easier. Rosemount (2) plays Eagan (7) and St. Thomas Academy (3) plays Two Rivers (3). The Section 3AA championship is scheduled for Braemar Arena on March 1 at 7:00 p.m.
