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Hodags Step Up, Blank Raiders

By Jeremy Mayo, 01/28/11, 10:35AM CST

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The usual suspects did their thing for the RHS Boys Hockey Team, but they weren't alone on Thursday at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.


Geoff Leavitt (gold helmet) got a spot start and recorded a shutout on Thursday.

From HodagSports.com 

Brandyn Dahlquist had another three-point night for the Hodags, and senior captain Alex Henkel had a goal and an assist. But it was the play of senior Ryan Gartman, who got his first career varsity goal, and backup goalie Geoff Leavitt, who in his second start of the season posted the team's first shutout in 51 games, that helped the Hodags beat the Medford Raiders 5-0, snapping a seven-game losing streak in the process. 
 
     Rhinelander scored a goal in each of the first two periods and exploded for three goals in the final period to put the outcome on ice. 
 
“We did some good things,” RHS Boys Hockey Coach M.J. Laggis said afterward. “I thought we could have finished better earlier in the game, but we weathered a big storm in the second period and put some pucks home in the third.”
 
Leavitt's only other start of the season was Rhinelander's 6-5 overtime win against Medford back on December 14 in Medford. He made 24 saves that night and did himself on better Thursday, becoming the first Hodag goalie to record a shutout since Jake Jackomino blanked Whitefish Bay on December 27, 2008.
 
Laggis said that Leavitt got the start after Bryce Leubke missed Wednesday's practice because of an illness. He also said the initial plan was to play both of them, and perhaps third-stringer Luke Sandstorm, but that all changed as Leavitt kept the goose-egg on Medford's side of the scoreboard.
 
“Geoff just played so strong for so long that we thought we've got to let him try to see long he can go here and if he can get a shutout. In the defensive zone, we play really well at moments and then we break up a little bit. Luckily tonight when we fell apart, Geoff made some big saves.”
 
Rhinelander outshot Medford 13-3 in the first period, but the only goal to show for it came at the 5:50 mark as Brandyn Dahlquist passed a puck thought the crease to Joe Zuiker, who despite getting turned around by a defender was still able to get the back of his stick on the puck and poke it in for the goal.
 
It remained 1-0 until midway through the second period when Gartman, finished a pass ahead from Jonathan Neveaux, netting his first career varsity goal.
 
“Ryan just did something we've been preaching all year long and that's just follow the shot,” Laggis said. “There was a little sequence there where the puck popped up and bounced out. Ryan kept going to the net, got a stick on it and put it in the back of the net. That was great to see him get a career goal.” 
 
If there was one blemish to an otherwise perfect night for the Hodags, it was the fact that they were called for nine penalties. But they killed off all six Medford power plays, including a pair of 5-on-3's to keep the Raiders at bay.
 
The floodgates finally opened in the third. On the first shift of the period, Henkel gained control of the puck at his own blue line and skated up ice on a break. Once in the Medford zone, he traced a puck to the top to the crease, about six inches off the ice where a crashing Bobby Estabrook met it and deposited the team's third goal. 
 
Henkel would add a goal of his own five minutes later and Brandyn Dahlquist rounded out the scoring with a nifty goal in which he held the puck until he got behind teammate Mike Zuiker, positioned on the left side of the crease. He fired the puck through Zuiker's legs passed a screen Medford goalie, David Fuchs, for his tenth goal of the season. 
 
Rhinelander outshot Medford 31-25 on the night in the team's first win since December 16. The Hodags have a rematch with Chequamegon on Tuesday, looking to avenge a 5-4 overtime loss from January 20.
 
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BOX SCORE: Rhinelander vs. Medford – Thursday, January 27, 2011
 
MED 0 0 0 – 0 
RHS 1 1 3 – 5
 
Scoring
 
1-5:50 R – Joe Zuiker (Brandyn Dahlquist, Jayson Dahlquist)
2-7:45 R – Ryan Gartman (Jonathan Neveaux)
3-0:37 R – Bobby Estabrook (Alex Henkel)
3-5:38 R – Henkel (B. Dahlquist, J. Zuiker)
3-11:24 R – B. Dahlquist (Estabrook, Mike Zuiker)
 
Shots on Goal: R 31 (13-7-11), M 25 (3-10-12)
Saves: R – Geoff Leavitt 25, M – David Fuchs 26
Penalties-Minutes: R 9-18, M 3-6
Power Plays: R 0-2, M 0-6
 
Rhinelander (3-10-0, 3-7-0 GNC) vs. Chequamegon, 2/1
Medford (1-14-0, 0-10-0 GNC) at Marshfield, 1/29