The Raider Boys Hockey team was 9-9-1 two weeks ago with two games that week and one last week. The first was a home game against Rochester Mayo 5-14-0 where the Raiders withstood a dramatic final three minutes to win 5-4 on Jan. 29. Jan. 31, the boys travelled to United Heroes League for technically a home game for the Apple Valley/Burnsville co-op Eagles (6-14-0) where they lost 5-2. St. Thomas Academy (STA) came to town as the number two team in the state and the Raiders made them earn the 4-1 win.
Against Mayo
The Raiders started quickly with Brayden Krauth rocketing a powerplay goal past the Spartans goalie at 3:42 into the first. He was assisted by Matt Sherry and Jon Harris. Krauth scored the second goal of the period at 10:32, assisted by Lukas Niederkon and Harris. Harris tossed a minor monkey wrench in Krauth’s plan for a true hat trick when he scored a shorthanded breakaway goal at 12:57, assisted by Brody Geib. May grabbed one back at 14:57 and Hastings took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
The second period had one goal, an even strength connection from Jonas Schauer to Aden Cavness who buried the puck at 3:57. The rest of the period was uneventful, and Hastings had a 4-1 lead at the second intermission.
At the start of the third period, Hastings added an insurance goal at 6:29 when Harris scored with assists going to Carlson and Krauth. Nine seconds later, Mayo finally pushed back, scoring their first goal of the period to bring the score to 5-2.
The Spartans made things interesting with under two minutes remaining in the game. At 15:01, they cut the lead to 5-3 and with just 53 seconds remaining, they scored again to make it 5-4. As the horn sounded, a third straight goal snuck past Smelser to potentially tie the game. The closest official waved the goal off and Hastings had the 5-4 win despite the protests from Mayo.
Smelser saw 19 shots stopping 15 for a .789 save percentage. Hastings outshot Mayo 36-19 despite having 10 penalty minutes on five infractions to Mayo’s six minutes on three infractions. Hastings was able to capitalize on one powerplay and they successfully killed all five penalties.
Against the Eagles
The game was held in Hastings’ backyard at the SCHEELS Rink on the Tradition Veterans Complex at United Heroes League, the site for Hockey Day Minnesota 2026, but it was technically Apple Valley / Burnsville’s home game.
The first period was uneventful, and the teams went to the first intermission tied at zero. The Eagles took the lead halfway through the second and tacked on a second goal with less than two minutes to go in the second to take a 2-0 lead into the second intermission. The Eagles defense did a great job keeping Hastings off balance and away from the goal out shooting Hastings 30-15 in two periods.
The third period was no better for the Raiders in the shots on goal stat line, they were outshot 15-7 but they were able to score twice in a wild third period.
18 seconds into the third, Harris did what Harris does, he scored his second short-handed goal of the week on another breakaway chance, this time setup by Will Savage to bring the game to 2-1. At 2:12, the Eagles took the two-goal lead back and at 6:38, Hastings cut the lead to 3-2. Savage scored with assists going to Niederkorn and Brecken Fullerton. Sadly, that was all the offense Hastings could muster, and the Raider defense could not hold back the Eagles. The co-op team scored two more goals to win 5-2.
Apple Valley/Burnsville outshot Hastings 45-22. Of those 45 shots faced, Charlie Stoffel stopped 40 for a .889 save percentage. Both teams had 10 penalty minutes on five infractions, with one set of penalties paired up as coincidental, so each team had four powerplay opportunities. The Eagles were the only team to score once on a skater advantage.
Against St. Thomas
STA came to Hastings expecting one thing, the Raiders to roll over to their ‘superiority’. It is an earned arrogance that all of the Cadet teams have. They not only expect to win, but they also expect to dominate. There was one problem with that thought process, Hastings was not going to just roll over and beg for mercy.
The Cadets came into the game averaging six goals, 40 shots on goal and have allowed only 20 shots by opponents per game. Hastings came into the game ready to not only hold their own against STA, but they also collectively stood up to punch a proverbial bully in the mouth. The Raiders kept the Cadets scoreless for the majority of the first period. A questionable penalty gave the Cadets a power play and at 14:53 into the first, STA took a 1-0 lead. At the end of the first period, STA also outshot Hastings 15-5, but that stat did not tell the true story. Hastings kept STA to low percentage shots and kept a lot of pressure on the Cadets defense despite only logging five shots.
After the first period, Head Coach Matt Klein was extremely pleased with the boy’s performance. The boys came out high energy and took it to the Cadets.
“St. Thomas is really good, but we played really efficient, we played together, and we worked above the puck. We worked bodies and we created those one-on-one opportunities. When we have an opportunity to create a loose puck tonight, they are going to be pretty valuable for us with their speed and talent and everything they do. We wish it was a 0-0 game, but right now, we are one puck away, so we will see what happens,” said Klein.
When asked what he was going to tell the boys are the first intermission he said, “Don’t change a damn thing.”
When a coach goes into the intermission that fired up from a great team performance, it is difficult not to pick up the positivity yourself and the boys came out just as fired up for the second period.
The opposite energy was coming from the Cadets locker room. Their coach was actively chewing the players out for their performance in the first period despite their 1-0 lead. The frustrations for STA were clear on the ice and in the hallway, and that carried to the second period. Hastings had the second-best team in the state extremely frustrated.
STA gave the Raiders a power play at 2:01 into the second and at 3:13, Brody Carlson set up the speedy Jon Harris who scored the game tying goal causing a major eruption from the entirety of the fans in the arena.
Another Raider penalty later in the second gave the Cadets an opportunity to take the lead and they converted to go to the second intermission up 2-1.
It did not take long into the third period for STA to add a third goal, scoring 1:56 into the period. Hastings did not have any kind of energy loss in the third period, keeping up with the Cadets speed also creating chances to score. A late empty net goal gave the Cadets a 4-1 win over the Raiders, but it was a win that they truly had to fight for.
Charlie Stoffel had the start in the net stopping 49 of the 52 shots he faced for a .942 save percentage.
Goalie Coach Josh Colvin talked about Stoffel’s performance after the game. “He was absolutely battling. You've seen it in multiple games where we get out shot, he's able to hold us in. Then you talk about tonight, Stoffel did an amazing job. He challenged out. He's a smaller goalie, so he's got to take some chances and play things a little bit differently than a six, four goalie. Tonight, one of the things that was amazing was how the team battled in front of him and was able to help. So, if he left a rebound, he was able to clear it, or the team was able to clear it.”
Colvin added that they track how many pucks the goalie’s control in addition to their save percentage. They make the stop for the save percentage piece, but what do they do with the puck when they stop it? Is it a rebound, a catch a deflection to the corner? How do the goalies control the puck while making the save and Stoffel became stronger in that aspect as the game went on.
One aspect of coaching goalies is understanding where they are mentally so the first thing Colvin asks every time is “how are you feeling?” so he can respond properly from that point.
Their conversation was primarily around the tempo of the game with the quick passes and shots and that he needed to keep battling, keep challenging and trusting his defense, and he did, resulting in a very competitive game.
STA outshot the Raiders 53-19, but the game was much closer with Hastings’ shots being more calculated rather than just tossing junk at the net.
Both teams had eight penalty minutes on four infractions. One pair of those penalties were offsetting minors, so each team only had three power play opportunities. Hastings converted one and STA converted two.
Up Next
The boys have three games left in the regular season, all three are home games and the next two are scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start. First is a visit from Mahtomedi on Feb. 11 and Feb. 13 against Owatonna. The final game of the season is against South St. Paul and that game is Feb. 15 at 2:00 p.m.