By Bruce Karnick

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The headline is correct. At 15-2-1, the Hastings boy’s hockey team is sixth in the conference. That is because the conference ranking is based off points for games played in the conference. Their conference record is 2-2-1 with losses against Hill-Murray, who is at the top with a 6-0 conference record, and St. Thomas Academy with a 5-2 conference record. Hastings can make a huge jump with a win against their next opponent, Mahtomedi, on January 27. According to Head Coach Matt Klein because the two teams are only playing each other once this season, and because they are a conference opponent, the points for a win count as double. That means a win for Hastings, and they go from having five points to nine with one game.

How did last week go for the Raiders? On Jan. 18, Hastings made the trip to Rochester to take on Mayo in a section game. Connor Stoffel took a Jake Harris pass and found the back of the net giving Hastings the 1-0 lead at 7:20 in the first. Mayo tied the game with 40 seconds left in the first period.

In the second, Mayo took the lead 4:09 in, but Stephen Reifenberger scored a power play goal to tie it back up at two. Jack Nicklay and Harris each earned an assist. The game stayed tied through the third, bringing up overtime. Just over a minute into the extra period, Stoffel connected with Collin Stewart who then found Nicklay for the game winner.

Hastings produced 52 shots on goal, 50 of those in regulation. Mayo had 21. Hastings played a very clean game, going to the penalty box only one time for two minutes, Mayo had five trips for 10 minutes. Holden Richardson secured the victory in net for Hastings giving him his ninth victory on the season and giving the Raiders an important section win.

Rochester Century then came to town on Jan. 22 for a matinee game. Hastings dominated the entire game starting with Harris scoring 2:23 into the first, assisted by Stewart. Logan DeBettignies joined the fun with an assist from Luke Savage at 3:29. Then Harris made a great mid-ice steal on a Rochester powerplay to score the unassisted shorthanded goal at 11:46.

The second period belonged to Debettignies who scored the lone goal of the period at 11:25, with assists from Stewart and Brody Larsen. Hastings was now up 4-0.

Just into the third, Stoffel scored his first of the game assisted by Jackson Sweeney and Luke Chorlton. In the third, Blake Vandehoef scored his first of the game assisted by River McDowell and Brody Larsen. Then Rochester interrupted Hasting’s scoring spree by logging a goal of their own to make it 6-1. In the the third, Jackson Sweeney scored his first of the game assisted by Stewart and Stoffel.

Hastings won in dominating fashion over another section opponent, 7-1. The Raiders put up 42 shots on goal to Century’s 16. Richardson was a brick wall again in goal for Hastings to earn his tenth win on the season. Penalties were a troublesome spot for both teams.

What has Hastings outscoring opponents 71-16 in the last 11 games?

Coach Klein explains, “It’s a good locker room one. I mean, we don’t care about [who gets the goal] we care about the tape we’re about to hit. So, we’re asking the kids to do the same thing, which, you know, it’s reflecting because they’re playing with confidence and playing with control. They’re getting rewarded many different places, which is pretty cool Photo by Bruce Karnick – all different guys. And that’s, like we talked about, in our offense, we want to spread out the defense just like in any sport, whether you’re playing basketball, football, soccer. If you can spread out the defense, you’re going to have different opportunities in different places, you’re not playing three on five down low, you’re playing three on three down low, just like we go up top, we want to outnumber teams, three on two ourselves, just with the routes that we take, so we can create space for somebody else. It’s not where the puck goes next, that’s what’s going to happen. Once that next guy, whether he shoots, whether he finds the next guys, he’s going to have more space, and that’s where we can kind of control and, and get our offense really structured.”

Another aspect to the success of the team has been the goaltending. What has Klein witnessed there?

“Their ability to have one save not turn into two. When they are square, and they are out and they are under control, you know, they are making big saves each time. But they’re not creating more work for themselves. And that’s big, because of what the work we’re doing in front of them,” Klein said.

Another big thing that is not on the stat sheet, screens, Coach Klein Explains. “Our kids get rewarded anytime we score a goal, and we have a screen. It’s not the kid that scores the goal. But the kid that screens that that led to the goal gets a flag on their helmet. And when that takes place, the player that shoots it, usually a defenseman, they get a flag on their helmet as well. I think we just handed out 48 flags for the first 12 games of the year. And we’re doing a lot of things well together, which is the fun part. Again, it’s easy to see the fun when a guy’s name shows up for a goal or he gets an assist. But I want to reward kids for the how does the selfless how you know, trying to make that more forward.”

Mahtomedi is next. Mahtomedi is in a very similar situation to Hastings, returning a lot of key players from last year’s team which not only makes them an experienced group that has been together a long time, but a group that has also played this Hastings team a number of times. That means the 7:30 p.m. puck drop on Jan. 27 will be a huge one.

After Thursday’s game against the Zephyrs, Hastings hosts South St. Paul on Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. In the first meeting of the season, Hastings dismantled the Packers, 10-0. The boys will then have a week off of games before they travel to West St. Paul arena to take on Two Rivers, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m.