The Raiders boys hockey team had two games last week. First was a trip to Anoka to take on the Tornados before Hill-Murray came to town for some Metro East Conference action. One thing is clear about the Raiders, these boys do not know the word quit. They fight hard, and they fight for a full 51 minutes, even when their tanks are on empty.

At Anoka on Tuesday, December 13, the boys started a little slow and Anoka jumped out to a 1-0 lead halfway through the first period. The Tornados extended the lead 7:54 into the second period until they gave Hastings a man advantage. Eddie Peine and Blake Vandehoef found Connor Zgoda who scored the powerplay goal at 12:25 to cut the Anoka lead in half. 1:55 later, at 14:20, it was Vandehoef’s turn. Jon Harris and Joseph Iovino each earned a point for the assist on Vandehoef’s goal and it was tied 2-2.

Three minutes into the third period Zgoda scored again, this time he was assisted by Sawyer Zaruba and Roman McNamara and Hastings had the lead 3-2. Anoka pulled their goalie late in the third to have the extra attacker and with 1:22 left in the game, Mark DeNoyer was called for tripping, and he went to the penalty box. The running joke with DeNoyer is, it wouldn’t be a Raider hockey game without him making it to the box once in a game. De-Noyer is one of the quicker and more aggressive players on the team and he simply seems to be noticed more by the refs. It is kind of like having a red sports car, the police just notice it more. The penalty did not bother the Raiders, they were determined to win the game and with 29 seconds left, Vandehoef added another point to his stat line and another goal to the scoreboard, a shorthanded empty net goal. Hastings won 42.

The final stat line had Hastings at 1-for-3 on powerplays and they stopped both of the Anoka powerplays. Hastings went to the box for six minutes on three infractions and Anoka had eight minutes of penalty box time on four infractions. Hastings dominated the shots on goal side of things with 34, Anoka had 20. Kody Niederkorn had the start in net for Hastings again, stopping 18 of the 20 shots he faced, good for a .900 save percentage.

Hill-Murray paid a visit to Hastings on December 15, this was by far the most exciting game of the young Raider season. It was a high energy, fast paced game for the entire night. The Pioneers jumped out to the early 1-0 lead at 5:39 in the first, but Hastings tied the game off the stick of Brody Larsen at 11:45 in the first. Larsen was assisted by DeNoyer on his first goal of the game. The score remained 1-1 into the first intermission.

The same thing happened in the second, Hill-Murray drew first blood for the period at 2:13. Then Austin Shanks got in on the action for his first varsity goal at 8:52. Zaruba and DeNoyer earned assist points with the help they gave Shanks on the goal. The second intermission had the game tied 2-2.

“Hill-Murray is a really good hockey team, it's not every day you get to play a team of this quality, this well coached,” said head coach Matt Klein after the second period. “Our kids are doing a great job playing together and when you do things together, you get excited for each other, and we have got to continue to do that.”

Through two, Niederkorn had been playing lights out, what was Klein going to tell him at the intermission?

“We will tell him what we always do, just be you because he's just a great kid, a fantastic goaltender and he's really easy to play hard for,” said Klein.

The third period was the anomaly of the game. Larsen took a DeNoyer pass in front of the Pioneer net and found the white lace for the second time in the game giving Hastings the 30 lead. That is where the Raider scoring stopped. Hill Murray was kept at bay for 10 and a half minutes. The shots that did get through were knocked away by Niederkorn who looked poised to help Hastings steal a win from the hated Pioneers.

Hill-Murray finally found a way past Niederkorn at 11:03 into the third and the game was tied 3-3. 44 seconds later, it was 4-3 Pioneers. Hill-Murray held onto that lead for the remainder of the game and Hastings pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. The Pioneers hit the open net dagger at 15:46 and the game was over, 5-3 for Hastings first loss of the season.

There were only three powerplays for the game, one for Hill-Murray and two for Hastings and both teams were perfect in penalty kills. The odd piece to that is Hastings went to the penalty box for six minutes on three infractions and the Pioneers went four times for eight minutes. A few of the penalties were coincidental, so even though there were seven total penalties, there were only three powerplays.

Hill-Murray dominated the shots on goal with 46 while Hastings had 21. Niederkorn saw 45 of those shots stopping 41 for a .911 save percentage. For the season, Niederkorn has all 212 minutes in net for Hastings with a record of 21-1. He has seen 128 shots on goal in four games stopping 117 of them for a save percentage of .914 and a goals against average of 2.65. A 91.4% save is a good spot to be at, ideally, most keeper’s minimum is 92% but they would really like to be 95 or higher. The stat that would really be nice to see change for Niederkorn is the goals against average. Hastings has the talent to score three goals per game and they have consistently done so the first four games of the season averaging 3.25 goals per game. If Niederkorn and his defense can keep the goals against average closer to two, that will make life a lot easier for the Raiders.

Niederkorn’s glove against Hill-Murray was the Raiders saving grace, it is so quick, and his long arms give him opportunities to make some pretty spectacular saves. There were only a few times his leg strength pushed him a bit too far out which then put him just a hair of position forcing him to make some incredible moves to get back for the save, which he did. He is fun to watch in net with a combination of smooth motion, quickness, good technique keeping his glove up plus not being afraid to get into the pile and be scrappy when bodies are in his way. The Raider defenders do a great job helping him too which makes goalies and the team look that much better out there.

On the penalty kill, Hastings has successfully killed 91.7% of the penalties against them, which means they are doing a great job shutting down the shooting lanes to protect their goalie and they clear the puck well to burn off the clock. Offensively, the Raiders are scoring on roughly 11.5% of the shots taken compared to the opponent’s 9.5 percent.

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 McGree 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 15 at home.

Kody Niederkorn has been playing well for the Raiders this season with a .914 save percentage and a 2.65 goals-against average. Niederkorn made some incredible glove saves against Hill-Murray, but his acrobatics were not enough to win the game. Photo by Bruce Karnick.