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The Raiders girl’s hockey program had one game last week before Mother Nature decided to send the region a below zero cold streak filled with snow, forcing schools to cancel everything on Thursday. Rochester Century made the trek north to visit the Raiders on Tuesday night, Dec 20. The Panthers entered the contest at 5-6 and the Raiders came in at 6-7.

The Raiders were trying to break a two-game losing streak where they only managed to score once in those two games. Scoring in hockey is a lot like batting in baseball. The longer the drought, the more mental it becomes, so logging three or more goals in a win could be just the medicine that Hastings needed to get back on the scoring wagon.

That wagon pulled up to the Hastings civic arena at the 8:43 mark of the first period. Maddie Schuster scored the first Raider goal unassisted to give Hastings the 1-0 lead. Century tied things up two and a half minutes into the second period and it looked like the game was going to be a dog fight. The biggest issue at hand, Hastings was making the Panther goalie look like an all-star. The goalie has a 4.97 goals against average and a .865 save percentage and Hastings had 36 shots on goal after two periods to Century’s eight, yet the score was 1-1. Nearly every shot was center mass or into the leg pads and that needed to change if Hastings wanted to win the game.

20 seconds into the third period, the Raiders were on the powerplay from the end of the previous period and Addie Seleski scored on a pass from Kyra Erickson and Makayla Berquist to give the Raiders a one goal lead. The shot went over the leg pads and to the glove side of the Panthers keeper. 1:13 later at the 1:33 mark, Jade Schauer scored an even strength goal, unassisted to give Hastings the two-goal lead. Hastings figured out how to challenge the Century goalie and it was paying off.

At the 5:12 mark, Hastings scored again. This time, Madyn Hanson and Grace Gerlach setup Karissa Thompson for the even strength goal and the Raiders now led 4-1. Century scored on the power play at 11:26 in the third, on a goal that looked like starting goalie, Alexis Steinke, had control over. Somehow, the puck squirted out of her grasp, between her legs to dribble into the net for the Panthers second goal. The final goal of the game came just after the Panthers pulled their goalie hoping for the offensive man advantage. Schuster made a great pass to Thompson, who scored the empty net goal to give the Raiders a 5-2 win.

The Raiders looked comfortable taking 57 shots on goal and it was great to see four of the 21 go in during the third period alone. It is not known what kind of pep talk Coach Jim Joseph gave at the second intermission, but it clearly helped the Raiders make some key offensive adjustments.

Century had 16 total shots on goal to Hastings’s 57. Both teams had three penalties for a total of six minutes, and both successfully killed two of the three penalties.

Thompson jumped up to be tied with Hanson at 13 points on the season, fourth on the team. Berquist still leads the team with 18 points with Erickson right behind her at 17. Kylie Gruden, who injured her shoulder against South St. Paul, is sidelined for at least a few more weeks. She is in third for points with 14. Gruden and Ava Hoffman are two good roster holes to fill due to their injuries and hopefully they will both return before the post season starts.

Injuries have given opportunities for a few of the JV players to move up to the Varsity ranks. Sam Brunner saw her first varsity action against Rochester Century, and she did a good job adjusting to the varsity speed of play. Brooke Townsend and Catie Zaccardi have had two and three games respectively, both are still adjusting to the varsity play and both made an impact against Rochester Century. Autumn Burt has played up for six games and she came so close to a varsity goal against the Panthers, so expect to see her name on the scoresheet soon.

Defensively, the Raiders did a great job keeping pucks from getting to Steinke with her only seeing 16 shots. With two goals scored, that puts Steinke’s save percentage for the game at .875. For the season, she sits at a 0.81 goals against average with a .947 save percentage. With only one game because of the cancellation, Steinke’s goalie partner, Bree Balster, did not have a chance to see any in-game action last week.

The Raiders travel to Rosemount on Thu, Dec 29 puck drop at 3:30 p.m. to take on the 5-6 Irish. Then a return home for Hill-Murray on Jan 3 at 7:30 to take on the 8-2 Pioneers.

Karissa Thompson scored her third goal of the season and the fourth goal of the game to give the Raiders a bigger lead against Rochester Century. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Jade Schauer poked a goal past several Panther defenders to give Hastings the lead for good against Rochester Century, the Raiders last game before the holiday break. Photo by Bruce Karnick