After two straight wins, the Raider Boys find themselves sitting in the middle of the Metro East Conference (MEC) at 7-8-1 overall and 3-2 in the conference. St. Thomas Academy leads the MEC at 15-2-0 overall and 6-0 in conference play. Hill-Murray is second at 14-1-1 and 5-1. Two Rivers is in third at 11-3-2 and 4-2-1. Hastings is in fourth after taking down Anoka 5-2 and Tartan 4-0.
At Anoka
The game at Anoka started like an episode of Wild and Out, crazy. A total of five goals were scored in the first with Hastings logging goals one and two of the game to take and hold onto the early lead. Jonas Schauer scored first for Hastings at 3:20 assisted by Will Savage and Brody Geib. Then at 6:56, Jon Harris added to his team leading points with a goal, assisted by Lukas Niederkorn and Aden Cavness.
Anoka cut the lead in half at 7:23 and the game was sitting at 2-1 with Hastings clinging to the lead. Brayden Krauth found white lace at 10:49 to give the Raiders a 2-goal lead. Krauth was assisted by Aden Cavness and Harris.
Until that point in the game, all the goals were even strength and Anoka changed that with 3:03 left in the period by scoring a short-handed goal at 13:57. The period expired with Hastings leading 3-2.
The second and third period were boring compared to the first. Harris scored the only Raider goal in the second period with just 23 seconds remaining. Brody Carlson and Niederkorn connected with Harris at 16:37 to put the Raiders up 4-2. 12 and a half minutes later, at 12:07 in the third, Brayden Krauth connected with Geib who fed Harris for the hat trick and a Raider 5-2 win.
Hastings had three powerplays and Anoka had two, both teams successfully killed the man advantages. Hastings had eight penalty minutes on four infractions while Anoka had 13 minutes on six infractions.
Charlie Stoffel earned the start in goal stopping 25 of the 27 shots he faced for a .926 save percentage. Hastings tallied 41 shots on goal.
Versus Tartan
The quick rematch against Tartan was one that made fans wonder what will be different for Tartan. The game at Tartan just nine days earlier was total domination by the Raiders. An estimated 75% of the game took place on the Tartan half of the ice and Hastings won 4-1. The situation was, Tartan had a nasty bug work its way through the locker room. The bug, combined with other injuries took 14 Titans off the roster for the Raider game day. That forced Tartan to cancel the junior varsity game and did not put their best foot forward in the varsity game.
For this matchup, Hastings came out swinging with Carter Hanson scoring the first goal at 1:47 for the Raiders. Hanson was assisted by Wahlstrom and Niederkorn. Hastings finally scored on the power play when Jonas Schauer found the back of the net at 12:57 of the first, with assists going to Will Savage and Carlson.
The second period Hason struck again, this time short handed and unassisted at 10:25. Hanson completed the hat trick with an unassisted even strength goal at 4:16 in the third.
Hastings went 1-for-4 on powerplays, and they successfully killed the three different man advantages for the Titans. Tartan had eight penalty minutes on four infractions and Hastings had six minutes on three infractions.
Nick Smelser earned the 51-minute shutout stopping 22 shots while Hastings peppered the Titans with 41 shots.
Up Next
The next chance to catch the boys in action is at home against Simley on Jan. 23. At 6:30 p.m. On Jan. 25, they make the trip up Highway 52 to the West St. Paul Arena to face Two Rivers at 3:00 p.m. They return home on Jan. 29 to host Rochester Mayo at 7:00 p.m.