RHS drops to 4-1 in GNC, 7-2 overall

STAR JOURNAL REPORT 

After being tied going into the final 17 minutes Tuesday night, the Rhinelander High School varsity boys hockey team gave up four third-period goals scored by Lakeland Union High School sophomore Bret Benson and ended up losing the Great Northern Conference road game to the Thunderbirds, 5-1.

“We had a very solid game plan for stopping their top scorers in the first two periods, and that completely fell apart in the third as Bret Benson scored four on us,” said RHS head coach MJ Laggis. “I was extremely disappointed with our lack of discipline in the third. We are down players and have things juggled around, but we still have to play with discipline.”

LUHS scored first in the first period on a power-play goal by Tyler Carroll.

The Hodags tallied their only goal in the second period when Hunter Hicks scored on the power play assisted by Matthias Schneider to tie the game at 1-1.

Benson scored what turned out to the game-winning goal early in the third period when the Hodags skated a player short after Brandon Kolasa was penalized for tripping. Benson then added two even-strength goals and scored again on the power play to close out the Thunderbirds’ scoring.

“Hard to believe that a 1-1 game can completely come unglued like that, but it did on a number of levels.” Laggis said. “We have a lot to work on.”

Nathan Pitek recorded the win in net for LUHS with Seth Stafford picking up the loss in goal for RHS.

The Hodags’ season record stands at 4-1 in the GNC and 7-2 overall going into Thursday’s road game against the conference leader, Northland Pines, which is 5-0 in the GNC and 6-2 overall.

LUHS 5, RHS 1

RHS        0              1              0 – 1

LUHS     1              0              4 – 5