The Raiders entered the Section 1AA tournament as the fourth seed and played host to the Rochester Century Panthers on a snowy Thursday evening, February 23. Raiders fans packed the house with standing room only along the boards to cheer the boys on. The Raiders fell 5-4 in double overtime, but the game until that final goal was scored did not disappoint.

Hastings had already beaten Century earlier in the season 3-0. Add that and the Raiders being the fourth seed and Century being the fifth, the opportunity for Hastings to enter the game overconfident was there.

Century scored first 3:26 into the first when a tripping penalty sent a Raider to the penalty box. The power play goal went in with 11 seconds left on the penalty. Shortly later, Hastings tied the game at 16:10 in the first. Blake Vandehoef and Jon Harris connected with Connor Zgoda for his first goal of the game. The first period Hastings seemed to be playing on their heels with the puck in their end of the ice for a good portion of the period. Century even outshot Hastings 11-7 in the first stanza. The energy and effort needed to change if Hastings was going to win this game as Century came to play.

In the second period, Vandehoef scored on the powerplay to give the Raiders the lead. Zgoda and Mark DeNoyer each earned an assist on the goal that came at 10:11 into the second. At one point in the powerplay, Hastings had a 5-3-man advantage and they could not find the net. That is when another Hastings penalty bit them on the rear end when a high sticking call gave the Panthers a 5-4-man advantage. Century scored their second powerplay goal of the game tying the game at two. Three minutes later, Century scored again, this time on an even strength goal, and took the lead 3-2 into the second intermission. Hastings was once again outshot, this time 11-9 and they were simply being outplayed even with the score being so close.

Hastings came out of the locker room with some fire for the third period. Just past the halfway point of the third, Sawyer Zaruba passed to Zgoda in neutral ice. Zgoda looked as though he was dumping the puck into the Century zone from just outside the blue line for a line change, but it ended up being a very high lob shot on goal. By lob, think infield pop fly, it went high and not very far. It actually went so high; it is a miracle it did not hit the rafters or batting cages hanging from the ceiling. The Century goalie had no idea where the puck went and it landed perfectly in the nine inches between the goalies back and the front pipe of the net, bouncing in for a Raider goal at 8:39. It was the craziest goal this reporter has ever witnessed, and the crowd agreed because they all went wild.

Hastings was penalized for too many men on the ice at 11:07, giving the Panthers their fourth opportunity for a man advantage. Century capitalized and took the lead back at 12:45. With three minutes left in their season, fans began to watch Kody Niederkorn, wondering when he was going to make his move to the bench to give the Raiders an extra skater.

That move came with about two minutes left in the game and the Raiders moved the puck well, keeping it from Century with six men on offense. Shortly after the extra skater made it into position, Zgoda connected with Vandehoef and Vandehoef buried it to tie the game at four with 1:14 left in regulation.

High school overtime rules change for the playoffs. Normally, the teams stay at the bench area for a three-minute break, switch ends before they play an eight-minute overtime period. If the game ends in a tie, so be it. For the playoffs, they repeat the overtime after a 15-minute locker room break to allow the ice to be resurfaced then a 17-minute overtime period. If the game is still tied after that, they do it again.

The first overtime period and even in the third period, Hastings had ample chances to score but just could not connect. Hastings outshot Century in the third 12-10, but then were outshot 10-4 in the first overtime. Teams went to the locker room before starting period five of the game, and that period did not last long. Century put one past Niederkorn at the 2:49 mark to end the Raiders season.

Overall, the Raiders simply could not keep up with Century. They did not have the same energy or intensity and Century controlled the pace of play for most of the game. Century outshot Hastings 46-32, but Hastings simply gave up too many powerplay goals, allowing goals on three of the four powerplays for Century. Last week, the penalties were brought up as something Hastings would need to keep under control, and with eight penalty minutes on four infractions, they did an OK job of staying out of the penalty box. Niederkorn finished the game with a .891 save percentage stopping 41 of 46 shots faced.

With the loss, the Raiders season comes to a close. We’d like to wish the best of everything to our graduating seniors, thank you for your dedication to Raiders sports.

Blake Vandehoef scores a powerplay goal to give the Raiders a 2-1 lead in the second period.

In the third period with Hastings down 3-2, Connor Zgoda tossed the puck toward the net like he hit an infield fly ball. The puck popped up so high it almost hit the ceiling and the Rochester goalie had no idea where it was until in landed in the net behind him. This was the most unbelievable game tying goal that many have seen.

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