It feels good to come out of round one and get on the right side of the bracket.”

Raiders head coach Matt Klein

Coming up:

The first return to gameplay will be at Owatonna on Jan. 9, then they return home to face Rochester Century/John Marshall on Jan 11, both with 7:00 p.m. starts. Mahtomedi comes to town for a 2:00 p.m. matinee game on Jan 13.

The Raider boy’s hockey team entered the final week of 2023 at 5-4 as they made the road trip up Highway 61 to South St. Paul for the Premier Tournament. Hastings started the tournament on Dec. 26 against the host Packers and excitingly won that game, 2-1. On Dec. 27, they took on Cambridge/Isanti, a team that was like looking in the mirror for the Raiders. They came out on top of that one 3-2. Finally, they faced the team that took them down in the championship game of the same tournament last year, Woodbury. Hastings exacted revenge on the Royals and won 4-2 to win the championship.
The game against So. St. Paul was a low-scoring affair, but it had plenty of action and aggressiveness on both sides. The first period saw 14 total shots and no goals. It took over half the game in the books before the first goal was scored. Blake Vandehoef drew first blood at 10:17 into the second with the help of Connor Zgoda and Jon Harris.
The Raiders held onto the 1-0 lead until 11:01 into the third period when the Packers put up their first goal of the tournament. The goal only fired up the Raiders and at 14:11, the Harris to Zgoda connection gave Hastings the final lead of the game.
“It feels good to come out of round one and get on the right side of the bracket. I think we attempted 67 shots yesterday and we didn't find the net as much with those shots, but I thought our play outside of a stretch in the first where I didn't think we were very consistent. We were kind of taking some shortcuts I thought, but we competed really well. We just could not get past their goalie who was playing well, they're good in the D zone. So. St. Paul had chances to make it 2-1 their way too, so we're happy to get out of there with the win. We are feeling good, but you know, there are different tests today,” explained Raiders head coach Matt Klein before the game against Cambridge/Isanti.
The Raiders may have attempted 67 shots, but only 19 of them made it to the goalie. So. St. Paul fared worse with only 11 shots on goal. Both teams had two penalties for four minutes, and the Packers converted on one of the powerplays, which happened to be a 5-on-3 advantage. Ryan Clemens earned the win in net with a .909 save percentage.
What did Coach Klein know about the second opponent of the tournament?
“I think the top three scorers are well over 60 points early in the season. So, they are fast, and they can shoot then their scoring drops off but again, they have a dangerous four guys. Their number two has got a lot of points on the blue line as well. We will have to be good; we’ll have to be structured, and if we can do that, we should have a chance,” he said.
The Raiders were good, scoring three times in the first period after the Bluejackets struck first at 8:55. Ryder Regenscheid took a pass from Vandehoef and tied the game 50 seconds later. The second Raider goal came from the Harris/Zgoda/Vandehoef line with the score and assists going in that order. Then Regenscheid added his second goal of the game with just over a minute and a half left to make it 3-1.
Nearly all the scoring came in the first with Cambridge/Isanti adding one in the third for the game to finish 3-2 Raiders.
Hastings logged 32 shots on goal to the opponent’s 20. Brooks Smyrski stopped 18 of the 20 he saw for a .900 save percentage. On the penalty side of things, Hastings went to the box for six minutes on three infractions while the Bluejackets went once for two minutes.
In the championship game, Woodbury drew first blood 40 seconds into the second period and Hastings struck back quickly. Vandehoef scored at 3:02 in the second period with the help of Harris and Zgoda to tie the game at one. Brayden Krauth gave Hastings the lead with 12:28 expired in the second with an unassisted goal.
In the third, all heck broke loose with a total of nine penalties called including a game misconduct against Woodbury and a penalty shot for Hastings. The penalty shot was the first goal of the third by Vandehoef. Woodbury scored to make the game interesting at 3-2, but Hastings added a fourth goal at 15:55. Harris put it in the net from Vandehoef and Zgoda.
In all, there were 14 penalties called for 37 minutes. Hastings had six penalties for 12 minutes of that mess. Woodbury had 30 shots on goal to the Raiders 23. Smyrski earned the start in the championship game stopping .933 of the shots he faced and is quickly making a case for him to be the Raider’s true number-one goalie.
With the holiday tournament over, the Raiders were rewarded with over a week off of games. Their first return to gameplay will be at Owatonna on Jan. 9, then they return home to face Rochester Century/John Marshall on Jan 11. Both of those games are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. starts. Mahtomedi comes to town for a 2:00 p.m. matinee game on Jan 13.