By Bruce Karnick

[email protected]

The Raider skaters entered the current week on a 14-game win streak, outscoring opponents 86-20. Their last loss came at St. Thomas Academy on December 16, 2021, where the Cadets beat them 7-1. Since then, the Raiders have been on an amazing run. East Ridge was set to be the Raiders next victim, followed by Champlin Park.

The game against the Raptors on Feb. 8 was a “blink and you miss it” kind of game. 39 seconds into the first period, the flood gates opened. Stephen Reifenberger found Luke Savage for the first goal of the game, and in the first 13:07 of the game, Hastings scored a total of five times.

Savage, Logan DeBettignies, Connor Stoffel, Jackson Sweeny and Collin Stewart all put points on the board. The best part of that five-point sequence is how many different players were involved in scoring or assists. Assists came from Reifenberger, Jack Nicklay, Stewart, Jake Harris, Stoffel and Sweeny.

In the second period, East Ridge scored their one and only goal of the game, a powerplay that carried over from the end of the first period. After that goal, three more Raiders scored, Luke Chorlton and Harris in the second period and Stoffel in the third.

With Harris’ goal in the second, that put him over 100 points in his varsity career. Assists on the last three goals went to Stoffel twice, Sweeney twice, Harris and John Teigland. Stoffel’s performance had him keeping pace with his longtime friend and linemate Harris for the career point run, bringing Stoffel close to 100 career points, a feat he could reach against Champlin Park.

Hastings went to the penalty box for six minutes on three infractions and East Ridge went for 10 minutes on five infractions. Both teams were successful in scoring on one powerplay each. The Raiders had 41 shots on goal to the Raptors’ 16.

On Saturday, Hastings played host to the Champlin Park Rebels. The first period was a defensive battle with no scoring until 15:28 when the Rebels took the 1-0 lead. Hastings had 12 shots on goal to Champlin’s 10 but could not get one past keeper Coen Neu.

The Rebels added a second goal in the second period and simultaneously kept the Raiders at bay. Hastings only managed three shots the entire period.

In the third period, down 2-0, Connor Stoffel took the pass from Luke Savage to score his 100th varsity point and cut the Rebel lead in half. Unfortunately for Hastings, that was the only goal they scored. Champlin Park added insult to injury by putting two more past Holden Richardson giving the Raiders their first loss in almost two months.

The Rebels outshot Hastings 32-22 in a heavily penalized game. Hastings had 10 minutes on five infractions and Champlin had eight minutes on four infractions.

Digging deeper into the 15-game win streak and the schedule as it sits, this was the perfect trap game for the streak to end, and it did.

Here are some things to consider regarding the loss: Champlin Park always plays Hastings tough, no matter what their record. It is simply tough to maintain that kind of high energy play for weeks on end. The Raiders recently had a huge emotional win against Mahtomedi and have even a bigger sectional game place spot in the section. The final regular season game for Hastings is Feb. 19, 3 p.m. at Dodge County Ice Arena.

With two games left in the season, at 19-3-1 overall and 5-2-1 in the conference, the Raiders are poised to be at a minimum, the third seed in the section. They have still outscored opponents 96-25 in their last 16 games. That is an average of scoring 6.000 goals per game and allowing only 1.563.

With the last home game being Thursday night, the boys need your help. Show up, bring friends and cheer loud. Lift them up with how proud you are of them this season so far and give them the energy to take down Lakeville North and whomever the Raiders will host for the section playoffs. Show everyone that we are Raider Nation.

A quick apology: Last week it was reported that Kaden Harelson earned the shutout against Two Rivers. The official report from Two Rivers had Harelson incorrectly listed as the winning goalie at the time the story was written. We rely on the official book for accurate stats on the game which allows us to focus on the story and feel of the game.

Congrats to Kody Niederkorn for his shutout win against Two Rivers!