The Boys Hockey team had a difficult 10 days of games losing four of five including three straight losses. The boys entered the run of games at 0-1-1, and they were searching for their first win of the season. That did not come against Park of Cottage Grove. The Wolfpack thumped the Raiders 9-1, which put the Simley Spartans in a tough spot for the Raiders second opponent. After falling to 0-2-1 on the season, Hastings entered the contest on Dec. 7 against Simley with something to prove to themselves. Dec. 10, they traveled to New Prague where they fell 4-6, then Dec. 12, Two Rivers came to town toppling the Raiders 4-0, and finally the team bus skated down to Rochester during the freezing rainstorm on Dec. 14 to face the co-op of Century and John Marshall where Hastings fell 3-1.
At Park of Cottage Grove
The game against Park is one the Raiders would like to forget, or perhaps, they need to remember it for fuel of what not to do the rest of the season. The game was a 9-1 loss for Hastings. 85 percent or more of the game took place at the Raiders end of the ice. It took roughly 10 minutes into the first period for Hastings to set up any kind of offensive play in Parks end.
Nick Smelser had his first varsity start for the Raiders, that lasted 18 minutes and ten seconds. Park scored four goals in the first period and tallied their fifth 1:10 into the second period before the decision was made to put in Charlie Stoffel. Stoffel faired only marginally better than Smelser, lasting the remaining 32:50 in the 9-1 thumping from Park. Both goalies faced a flurry of shots with the bigger picture issue being the inability of the defense to clear out and prevent rebound shots. Several of the goals were from second and even third chances for the Park offense.
Will Savage scored the only Raider goal at 4:32 into the second period assisted by Jon Harris. By the time the Raiders put one on the board, they were down 7-1. The game finished 9-1.
Hastings had eight penalty minutes on four infractions and Park had six minutes on three infractions. Park was 1-for-4 on the power play and Hastings was unable to convert any of the player advantages into points.
Smelser stopped 18 of the 23 shots he faced for a .783 save percentage, Stoffle stopped 17 of the 21 he faced for a .810 save percentage.
At Simley
The Raiders seemed a little “jet lagged” from the Park game just three days prior and they started a little slow in the first period. Simley earned the upper hand on the Raiders going up 1-0 in the first. The second period the proverbial light switch flipped, and Hastings returned to their game, fast paced with quick transitions that causes chaos in the opponent’s end of the ice.
In the second period, Lukas Niederkorn tied the game at 8:37 with assists going to Will Savage and Jack Woodwick. Simley regained the lead just over two minutes later, but Hastings was not having it. 15 seconds later, Carlson popped one into the back of the net tying the game at two. Assists went to Harris and Wahlstrom. 1:30 later, the Raiders had their first lead in quite some time thanks to Brayden Krauth. Krauth was assisted by Rylan Krauth and Aden Cavness.
The third period was all Hastings. Wahlstrom scored his first of the game assisted by Woodwick and Harris just 55 seconds into the period. At 3:06, Niederkorn earned his second goal of the game on a power play assisted by Savage and Schauer. The final goal of the game was Brayden Krauth’s second goal at 8:01, this time, he was assisted by Cavness and Carlson.
Lukas Niederkorn and Brayden Krauth each scored two goals, Luke Wahlstrom and Brody Carlson each logged a goal in the win. Charlie Stoffel stopped 18 of the 20 shots he faced good for a .900 save percentage, and the defense stepped up big, limiting the shots Stoffel faced and helping clear rebounds. Hastings scored on two of the four power plays they had, and they successfully stopped three of the four penalties they had. Both teams went to the box four times for eight minutes. Hastings outshot the Spartans 35 to 20 in the 6-2 win.
At New Prague
The game against New Prague started with both teams getting a feel for each other until the Trojans snuck one past Charlie Stoffel to go up 1-0 with 10:52 expired in the first period. Hastings evened things up at 13:51 when Jonas Schauer set up Rylan Krauth for his first goal of the season.
Hastings had a strong second period scoring two goals and shutting down New Prague. Jon Harris scored 23 seconds into the period with assists going to Brody Geib and Lukas Niederkorn. Aden Cavness bookended the period scoring at 15:44 with the assistance of Harris. Hastings took the 3-1 lead into the locker room.
Through this game, the third period has by far been the most difficult for Hastings this season. Against Chisago Lakes, Hastings had a 3-1 lead into the third period and the game ended with a 3-3 tie. Against Bloomington Jefferson they were up 1-0 but allowed three goals in the third, losing 4-3. Against New Prague, they had a 3-1 lead after two but ended up losing 6-4 by allowing the Trojans to score five times in the third. Brody Carlson was the lone goal scorer for Hastings in the third period. Carlson’s goal was on the power play, and he was assisted by Carter Hanson. That goal brought the Raiders within one goal at 5-4. Hastings pulled Stoffel for the extra skater and with six seconds left in the game, a long shot on the empty net from New Prague sealed the Raiders loss 6-4.
Charlie Stoffel faced 48 total shots stopping 43 for a .896 save percentage. Conversely, Hastings had only 21 shots. New Prague had six penalty minutes on three infractions and Hastings had eight minutes on four infractions. Hastings scored on one powerplay and New Prague scored on two.
Home versus Two Rivers
Returning home against Two Rivers could have been a boost for the boys playing in front of their home crowd, but Two Rivers had other plans. The Warriors dominated the puck possession game starting with the last half of the first period all the way to well into the third period. The Raiders logged 10 shots on goal in the first period with most of those coming early in the period. After 17 minutes of play, the score was still knotted at zero and shots on goal were tied as well at 10.
The second period did not go the way of the Raiders. Technically, their first shot on goal for the period was early in the period, but that was an errant pass that bounced off the boards at center ice and happened to have the proper angle to go on goal. Had it not been for that bounce, Hastings would not have had a shot on goal for at least the first 12 minutes of the second period. Of those 17 minutes, the puck was in either in the neutral zone or the Raiders defensive end for what felt like 15 minutes. Hastings was barely able to keep control of any offensive attacks they tried and by the time the period ended, they had five shots on goal. The Warriors scored four times in the second period to lead 4-0.
Two Rivers started the third period strong, keeping Hastings off balance and the Raiders fought back with an improved offensive attack, but it was not enough to overcome the Warriors’ size and speed. The game ended with a 4-0 loss for Hastings.
Stoffel faced another 34 shots in net, stopping 30 for a .882 save percentage. Hastings took a total of 24 shots on goal. Penalty wise, the game was very clean with a total of three infractions for six minutes between both teams. Hastings went to the box twice and Two Rivers went once. Both teams killed their penalties successfully.
At Rochester Century/JM
Against the Rochester co-op of Century and John Marshall (CJM), CJM took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. For the second game in a row, the second period was dominated by the opposing team. Hastings only managed to get two shots on goal the entire second period while CJM logged 20 shots. Thankfully for the Raiders, Stoffel was a brick wall in the second period stopping all 20 shots he faced.
Rochester extended their lead in the third period to 3-0 before Jonas Schauer found the back of the net for Hastings on an unassisted goal to narrow the gap 3-1 and avoid another shutout loss for the Raiders.
Overall, Stoffel saw 40 plus shots for the second time this season. Of the 44 shots on goal, he stopped 41 for a .932 save percentage. In his five starts this season, he has faced 176 shots saving 158, for a .897 save percentage. Looking at a few of the top teams in the state, those goalies are facing an average of 18-25 shots on goal per game for the season, Stoffel is seeing over 35 shots on goal per game and Hastings overall has allowed nearly 38 shots on goal per game.
From the stat sheet, it looks as though the Raiders frustrations came to a head with the boys going to the penalty box for 10 minutes on five infractions, four of which came in the third period with three periods overlapping from 4:13 to 8:02. CJM had three infractions for six minutes and both teams were perfect on the penalty kill.
The next chance to catch the Raiders in action is their final two-game homestand of 2024, first, Dec. 17 against Irondale at 6:30 p.m., then Dec 21 against Eagan at 2:00 p.m. The final games of 2024 will take place at the annual South St. Paul Premier tournament starting on Dec. 30 at 7:00 p.m. Hastings and South St. Paul are the first match up of the tournament.