Tuesday night, February 17, the “second season” for the Northland Pines boys hockey team began. Pines received the 6th seed of sectional three of the WIAA boys high school hockey playoffs.

With their number six seed, the Northland Pines Eagles were granted a home regional playoff game versus the Tomahawk Hatchets, the number eleven seed. Pines won the game 10-0.

Nick Dean put the Eagles on the scoreboard first, just under two minutes into the game, by going low on Danny Hanke’s right side. Noah Wittkopf and Ryon Ritzer picked up assists on the goal.

Tomahawk had a good rush of the puck that resulted in a one on one attempt, but Hartwig saved the shot, denying Tomahawk of the goal. Connor Cox and Bailey Ramesh set up Colton Raymond right in front of the net, giving Pines their second goal of the period.

Bailey Ramesh made an illegal hit against one of the Tomahawk players, resulting in a five minute major penalty for checking from behind and a ten minute misconduct as well. Jack Brown served Ramesh’s five minutes for him, while Ramesh sat the entire ten minutes in the penalty box.

Colton Raymond shot the puck but was just shy of finding the open net, instead hitting the pipe and the puck bounced out. Raymond regained the puck and fed it to Joe Roach who lodged the puck between the back frame and the net. Cody Jantzen also got an assist on the Eagles’ third goal of the period. Pines outshot Tomahawk 17-6 in the first period.

Jacob Czarapata and Colton Raymond both recorded shots against Hanke before Joe Roach tipped the puck into the net early in the middle period of the contest. Ryon Ritzer was assessed a slashing penalty a minute later.

Kory Droes and Joe Roach both shot the puck towards the net but both hit the pipe instead of the back of the net. Nick Dean sat two minutes for slashing, followed by Tomahawk’s Alex Ungerer for high sticking.

Northland Pines’ freshman defensemen, Cody Jantzen and Sammy Spencer, assisted Colton Raymond on his second goal of the night with only twelve seconds left on the clock for the period. The Eagles led 5-0 going into the third period.

Less than two minutes into the third and final period of the regional playoff game, Nick Dean and Newey Spencer teamed up for the sixth goal and sent the game into running time. Bailey Ramesh rushed the puck with help from his linemates Joe Roach and Colton Raymond to put a seventh goal up on the scoreboard.

Just fourtyseven seconds later, Joe Roach got his third goal of the night and the hats from the student section went flying onto the ice. Cody Jantzen was assessed an interference penalty right off of a faceoff, but Pines killed off the penalty.

Jake Jantzen fired the puck from the blue line with Noah Wittkopf picking up his second assist of the night on the play. With only two seconds left on the clock, Newey Spencer passed the puck to Kory Droes, the tenth and final goal of the night.

Northland Pines advances to the WIAA Sectional 3 Regional Final game against the Stevens Point Area Senior High Panthers on Thursday night at 7:00 at the KB Willet Ice Arena.