Rochester Mayo came to town for the boys’ hockey home opener on Thursday, Dec. 1 for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop. The McGree East Rink was packed with excited Raider faithful for the first game of the season and the game did not disappoint.

Mayo came in having already played two games, losses to Minnetonka and Chanhassen. Early in the season, two games to none can make a world of difference in the way the body reacts to the high energy of games. When the teams hit the ice, both looked ready to go.

Hastings hit the scoreboard first with a trio of first-time varsity points. Brody Carlson and Jon Harris each earned their first assist points by connecting with Blake Vandehoef for his first varsity goal at 13:08. Mayo tied things up with just 15 seconds left of the first period.

“We had a shaky start in the first five minutes of the game,” said Vandehoef. “We finally settled that down and it felt great to get the first and put it in the back of the net.”

Hastings did not wait quite as long to put up goal number two. Harris earned his second point of the season with his first varsity goal at 9:29 in the second. Joseph Iovino tallied his first varsity point with the assist and Mark Denoyer logged his first point of the season also assisting on the goal. Mayo stormed back and scored two to take the lead 3-2 heading into the third.

The high energy of the game began to wane as Hastings struggled to keep their legs under them, but they never gave up. 11:09 into the third period, three more firsts happened for the Raiders. Sawyer Zaruba and Matt Sherry earned their first varsity assist points by helping Connor Zgoda score his first varsity goal and the game was tied at three.

Regulation expired forcing overtime. For the high school regular season, hockey games that go into overtime get a three-minute rest between the third period and the overtime period. The overtime period is eight minutes long. If the game is tied at the end of the overtime period, the result is a tie.

Mayo dominated on the offensive end of the overtime keeping the Raiders on their heels for most of the eight minutes, but Hastings never broke. Starting goalie, Kody Niederkorn kept Mayo out of the net and earned the tie for the first game of the season.

“The legs were pretty good until that OT, then we ran out of gas,” explained Vandehoef. “They have six periods of play under their belts, and this is our first game. But we kept on fighting.”

Stats of the game: Mayo was penalized four times for eight minutes and Hastings was penalized three times for six minutes and both teams killed every penalty they faced. Shots on goal were tied at 30 for regulation but Mayo pummeled Niederkorn with ten extra shots in overtime to Hastings’ one shot. Niederkorn stopped 37 of the 40 shots faced for a .925 save percentage and a goals against average of three.

“I saw a team that competes, and we just connect it seems,” explained Head Coach Matt Klein. “I know it didn’t look pretty at times, but our efforts were there, our backcheck was really good tonight and when our gaps are good and we take good angles, we pressure the puck well at times. We just need to be a little more consistent.”

The Raiders seemed to struggle at times with the basics like clean passes and losing the puck at their feet. That being said, this is a young group that just needs some time to fine tune things and settle in. Coach Klein is not worried.

“We graduated 12 seniors last year, so while some kids had Varsity time, they may have had third-or fourth-line time. It’s really a good bunch of kids that really work hard for each other. The pucks going to find the places that it needs to be, but this was game one and I love the effort I love more importantly, the attitude is fantastic, and you can build when you have effort and attitude everything else will become simpler,” explained Klein “A lot of kids had their first opportunity today and what a fun place to do it, a home game against a good hockey team that's in our section,” Klein added. “It was a good crowd, a lot of friends, a lot of family and you know, there was a lot of good hockey a times but we're just one play short. Hopefully we continue to grow and make that play a little sooner next time.”

That next time will come sooner than later, the boys have a chance to earn that first win of the season Thursday night, Dec. 8 as they travel to Simley to take on the Spartans at 7:00 p.m. then to Anoka for another 7:00 p.m. start on Dec. 13 and a 7:15 p.m. start in Rochester on Dec. 15. They finally return home for a matinee game at 3:00 p.m. against Hill Murray on Dec. 17. Keep in mind, Hockey games do not always start on time because of limited ice availability and previous days games.

Kody Niederkorn had a solid start in net stopping 37 of the 40 shots he faced for a .925 save percentage to start the season. Photo by Bruce Karnick