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Pines' Seniors Close Out Season With A Victory

By Jocelyn Monge, NP Eagle Eye News, 02/12/16, 8:45PM CST

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Northland Pines wins 5-3 over Lakeland on Senior Night

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This article and its content were provided by the students at NP Eagle Eye News, a student journalism project of the Northland Pines School District. You can follow them on Twitter @NPEagleEyeNews.


For five players and one team manager, the culminating regular season game of their high school career was last night against the Lakeland Thunderbirds. Seniors Ryon Ritzer, Noah Wittkopf, Colton Raymond, Connor Cox, TJ Ebert and Jocelyn Monge were honored last night between periods of their 5-3 victory to close out the regular season. 

Pines struggled to get their shots on net in the first period and with Colton Raymond and Ryon Ritzer both in the penalty box, Lakeland’s Caleb Menzia capitalized on a 5-on-3 advantage. Jack Rhode broke an eight game scoring drought with an assist going to Tucker Wittkopf to tie the game at the end of the first period. 

Menzia was credited with a second goal after just twenty three seconds had elapsed into the second period. Noah Wittkopf tied the game back up off of a pass from Colton Raymond head on with Nathan Pitek.

Pines killed off penalties against Sammy Spencer, Tucker Wittkopf and Ryon Ritzer before Noah Wittkopf tallied his second goal of the night, cashing in on a power play opportunity with Max Wohlleber in the box for tripping. Wittkopf launched the puck off of the cross bar to give the home team a one goal advantage. Colton Raymond and Ryon Ritzer picked up assists on the play. 

Caleb Menzia had a hat trick in the game, leveling the score at 3-3 at the end of the second period. The Eagles had a 20-14 shot advantage over the Thunderbirds. 

Lakeland and Pines alike had penalties to kill off in the final period including a double minor against Pines. Colton Raymond added a goal with assists going to Noah Wittkopf and Lochlan Siegmeier as the time on the clock was dwindling. 

With only a minute left in the game and down by one goal, Lakeland pulled Pitek from the net in favor of an extra attacker. Jack Rhode found the puck and shot from the blue line, scoring an empty net goal and giving Northland Pines a 5-3 win on Senior Night.

Northland Pines went 14-9-0 in the regular season, 11-3-0 in Great Northern Conference play. They took the sixth seed in their sectional for playoffs and will host eleventh seeded Merrill on Tuesday, February 16th. The winner will face third seeded SPASH on Thursday, February 18th.

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