I think we're getting rewarded when we play with structure, like our first goal, we had a great neutral zone attack, we took away the middle and made quick, four-foot passes off of the turnover to get a good shot. Good things happen when you do the right things.”

Head Coach Matt Klein

Coming up:

They face Two Rivers at home on Jan. 25 at 7:00 p.m. then they host Apple Valley / Burnsville at United Heroes League on Ravenna Trail at 2:00 p.m. on Jan. 27.

The Raider Boys Hockey team moved to 11-6 overall and 4-3 in the conference with two key road wins over Tartan (2-13-1) and Simley (3-14-1) last week. The 4-3 conference record puts them in the middle of the Metro East standings at fourth with Two Rivers atop the standings at 6-1, Hill-Murray at 5-1, and St. Thomas Academy at 4-1. Hastings has eight games left in the regular season, five of which are conference games and two will be big opportunities against Two Rivers and St. Thomas.
Against Tartan, the Raiders jumped out to a 1-0 lead 1:46 into the first period and never looked back. Brody Geib scored with the help of Mason Boeff and Luke Wahlstrom. Hastings dominated the Titans taking 18 shots on goal compared to Tartan’s five. The second period saw no scoring, but Hastings kept the pressure on with 12 shots to the Titans eight.
The third period went a little crazy with six penalties, including a 10-minute misconduct against Tartan. Hastings also added two insurance goals during the third period. The first came on a power play at 9:19 into the third when Lukas Niederkorn and Jon Harris connected with Blake Vandehoef to make it 2-0. Four minutes later Connor Zgoda scored his seventh goal of the season with the help of Jon Harris and Vandehoef.
Hastings won 3-0 and dominated the control of the game with 45 shots on goal to Tartan’s 20. Both teams had five penalties and Hastings was the only team to score once on the power play. With the 10-minute misconduct, Tartan had 18 penalty minutes to Hastings 10. Brooks Smyrski logged the shutout in the win.
The trip to Simley was another solid performance from the Raiders. Not quite as dominant, but Hastings still won handily 5-1. The Raiders had Harris kick off the scoring at 5:49 in the first with the assist going to Zgoda. The second goal came at the 10:37 mark of the first, this time Sawyer Tjomsland logged the goal with the assist going to Ryder Regenscheid. Hastings put the puck in the net another time, but it was waived off due to a quick whistle.
The Raiders took the 2-0 lead to the locker room for the first intermission. They also led to the shots on goal 12-10. The second period was more of the same, Hastings had nine shots to five and added one to the scoreboard. Vandehoef scored a powerplay goal with the help of Zgoda and Boeff at 4:05 into the second.
Head Coach Matt Klein stopped on his way to the locker room to talk about the game. “I don't think the score dictates how we're playing. I think we're fortunate to be up three zero right now, but that's part of hockey, you can't be perfect every night. But we need to be better, our feet need to be better, our angles, just our attack just from top down. We will be better the last 17 minutes, that will be our best period, but I think we're pretty fortunate to be three to zero right now.”
Klein added, “I think we're getting rewarded when we play with structure, like our first goal, we had a great neutral zone attack, we took away the middle and made quick, four-foot passes off of the turnover to get a good shot. Good things happen when you do the right things.”
Good things continued to happen for Hastings, they scored two more times. Harris scored the fourth goal for the Raiders at 8:15 into the third with assists by Brody Carlson and Zgoda. Simley broke up the shutout for Ryan Clemens with under three minutes left in the game. Hastings snagged the final goal of the game with eight seconds left in the game. Zgoda connected with Vandehoef for his second goal of the game.
There were a total of six penalties in the game, Hastings had one infraction for two minutes and Simley had 10 minutes on five infractions. Simley managed 26 shots on goal to Hastings 33. Clemens saved 25 of 26 goals for a .962 save percentage.
The two-game win streak is a great setup for Hastings as they enter the final stages of the regular season. They face Two Rivers at home on Jan. 25 at 7:00 p.m. then they host Apple Valley / Burnsville at United Heroes League on Ravenna Trail at 2:00 p.m. on Jan. 27.