By Bruce Karnick

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Feb. 24 was the day the Raiders quest for a section title and state tournament berth began. The first step in this difficult quest was against the Owatonna Huskies at home. Hastings had faced Owatonna earlier in the season at Owatonna and won, 4-1. The Huskies played Hastings tough the first two periods until Hastings took over in the third for that game, so, how would the second meeting turn out?

Holden Richardson started in goal for Hastings, and he was superb throughout the game, making tough saves including some pointblank rebounds to hold the Huskies off the scoreboard. Richardson has a lot of help from his defense. Owatonna only managed to get 19 total shots on Richardson. Four in the first, seven in the second and eight in the third.

Offensively, Hastings took the lead at 4:19 in the first. Connor Stoffel, this season’s point leader, scored after connecting with Jackson Sweeney to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead. Then at 11:01, Jake Harris set up Collin Stewart for the second goal of the game. The assist added to Harris’ team leading varsity career points total. With just 1:13 left in the first, Blake Vandehoef assisted Brody Larsen for the Raiders third goal, and the Raiders were pleased to go to the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.

Stoffel started the scoring again in the second, this time at 1:49 into the period on a pass from Jack Nicklay. Logan DeBettignies punched one in on the first powerplay of the game with the help of John Chorlton and Stewart and Hastings was up 5-0 heading into the second intermission.

Before he stepped into the locker room, head coach Matt Klein was proud of how the guys adjusted in the first.

“Halfway through the first, things changed for the better and the guys settled down. Now it’s about doing the right things all the way up and down our lineup. We’ll get 20 guys in this period, and we’ll make some plays. We have 17 minutes take care of.”

With a 5-0 lead, the main thing they needed to take care of was protecting their goalie and they did a tremendous job of that. The easiest way to protect the lead is to keep the puck out of your own end. The boys kept the pressure on and with 2:23 left in the game, Ben Zaccardi and Alex Gelhar helped Stoffel get the hat trick and seal the victory 6-0.

Hastings learned very quickly who their opponent would be for Saturday, a rematch against Lakeville North. The 5-4, last second loss to North has left a bad taste in the Raider mouths for nearly two weeks and the boys are champing at the bit to get revenge.

After the game, John Chorlton spoke on getting the first win in sections.

“It gives us momentum going into this next North game. It’s going to be very interesting seeing how we come out and play against North in a neutral ice. I just can’t wait for Saturday. The energy… the energy is flowing,” he said.

Jack Nicklay added “I’m just looking forward to go get out there and bust. We’ve got a good group of guys and I think we can make it happen. We know a little about what they do now so I think it will be different. We’ll come out harder, get pucks deep and pucks out and we’ll take it too them this time.”

“I think the puck just wasn’t bouncing our way the last game and we just need to come out and make the puck bounce our way,” explained Chorlton. “We need to take charge and hit them first.”

The Raiders made the hour trip south to the Rochester Rec Center for a 2 p.m. puck drop. After the first period, the game was still knotted at zero. Lakeville scored in the second to take the lead, then scored again to lead 2-0. Hastings fought back in the third to tie the game and force overtime where they lost 3-2, ending their season. Logan DeBettignies, Collin Stewart and John Chorlton celebrate the fifth goal of the game against Owatonna. DeBettignies

was credited wit the goal and the other two each got an assist.Photo by Bruce Karnick