Like great hockey teams, hockey communities know how to rally.

In October when cancer reared its ugly head in Medford, it became very personal to the Raiders boy’s hockey team. When Reed Roiger, the 10-year-old brother of Raider Ian, was diagnosed with T-cell leukemia it became a “where we go one, we go all” moment for the team.

“When I first learned about Reed's diagnosis, I immediately felt that our team should do some sort of fundraiser,” recalled head coach Klayton Kree. The family and community had already organized the “Rally for Reed” fundraiser and the Medford team joined with a special game and night to help raise funds. Some of the players and coaches went as far as shaving their heads in solidarity with Reed. “It’s crazy what happens when people come together,” said Kree.

On Thursday night at the Simek Recreation Center in Medford, the community turned out to support Reed as the Raiders tangled with the Rhinelander Hodags. This would be far from a marque matchup as the Raiders, with one win on the season met the 0-11 Hodags. Just a week ago I watched a similar contest at Simek as the Viroqua girls earned their first win of the season against the winless Medford team. When we turn on the scoreboard and drop the puck, records don’t mean a thing and the product you watch, in my opinion, is always entertaining. This night would be no different.

The Raiders donned special jerseys for the game, orange—for Leukemia awareness and blue numbers with “Rally for Reed’ written across the front. Blue is Reed’s favorite color.

Slow starts have been an issue for Medford this season and when Rhinelander’s Kadin Rodziczak lit the lamp with a 5 on 3 powerplay goal at 11:20 of the first period, it seemed nothing had changed. However, two minutes later, Raider senior Cole Pernsteiner did something Medford hadn’t done all season—score a first period goal! Pernsteiner took a pass from Max Losiewicz and found himself all alone at the top of the crease where he quickly fired the puck past netminder Connor McGee.  The Hodags outshot Medford 11-4 in the period.

“We've been struggling all year getting out to a good start in the first period,” said Kree. “We challenged them to change that stat (no first period goals),” he added.

The teams fought through a fairly even middle period with Medford owning a 10-8 advantage in shots. Medford had a couple of powerplay opportunities but couldn’t capitalize. The teams headed to the third tied at 1-1. “Rhinelander always plays hard and I knew we had to outwork them and that was another challenge we issued to our players,” offered Kree. “Slowly throughout the 2nd and 3rd period you could begin to see us wearing them down. We started generating a lot of chances, but their goalie played a solid game.” One of those saves came early in period three when McGee derailed a Raider 2 on 1, with a sliding pad save on Pernsteiner.

Rodziczak put Rhinelander back on top with his second goal of the game early in period three. Medford’s Cashton Reis made the initial save on a shot by Jack Turek, but the rebound laid unattended until Rodziczik ripped it past Reis.

Still trailing 2-1, Medford got an offensive zone face-off with 2:03 to play and pulled Reis for an extra attacker. Off a subsequent face-off, Rhinelander’s clearing attempt failed and Tanner Hubbard’s shot rebounded to Ian Roiger, who moved the puck to defenseman Luke Hartl at the point. Hartl sent a bullet toward the Hodag net through a screen that found the twine and tied the game. It was Hartl’s first high school goal.

The rink was buzzing as the Raiders and Hodags headed into overtime.  The Raiders struck quickly. Tanner Hubbard entered the zone after a stretch pass, lost the puck and then got it back, passed it over to Luke Hartl, who quickly got a shot on net where Pernsteiner was parked directly in front of McGee. The senior redirected the shot past McGee for his fifth goal of the year and an overtime win.

“Great resiliency and fight from our team,” said an excited Kree. “I was really proud of the way we worked and played. Cashton Reis, our freshman goalie had a phenomenal night and made a bunch of saves on some very high danger chances to keep us in it.”

When the evening was over, reality sets back in for all those in attendance and especially those close to Reed and his family. The game was a distraction and a rallying cry for more than just a victory over the Hodags, but a victory for Reed in his fight against cancer.

“It was special to see the team rally with each other,” said Kree. “During one of the late time-outs they were yelling to each other "Let's do this for Reed!" and that was pretty cool to see. I think hockey has been a good outlet for Ian to maybe forget about real life while he's out there playing, especially being surrounded by his team and many of his closest friends.”

Those who wish to contribute to the “Rally for Reed” fund, donations can be made at any AbbyBank location in parents’ Nick or Dannielle Roiger’s names, as well as on Venmo @Danielle-Roiger.