Tomahawk put the Merrill hockey team through a buzzsaw in last Tuesday’s battle for Lincoln County superiority, turning a 5-3 contest into an 8-3 victory.
The game was played at Merrill’s Smith Center.
“Tomahawk has been playing some pretty good hockey as of late,” MHS coach Chase Nelson said. “Their top line (Luke Schoone, Alex Ungerer and Kevin Bolder) moves the puck extremely well, and had us dizzy in the defensive zone all night.”
“We had a rough first period, and then we won the second period and got the game to 5-3, then we fell asleep again in the third period and gave up three more goals. You can’t play 17 minutes of hockey and expect to win games.”
“We have to find some ways to generate some more offense. We have four practices before our next game. The boys will be working hard to fix all of the mistakes we made tonight.”
The Hatchets owned the first period, taking a 3-0 lead. Ungerer scored the first and last goals of the frame with :52 and 9:54 gone, set up by Schoone and Matt Parker, then Bolder and Schoone. Colton Kammer gave an unassisted score with 6:35 gone.
The Jays traded tallies with Tomahawk in the second.
Michael Baumann jumped on a breakaway short-handed score 1:56 into the period, before Kammer netted a Trevor Iwen assist at 9:37. Dylan Heller put home a Nick Hoffmann pass with 13:08 used up before Bolder converted Schoone and Ungerer help at 14:18. But Baumann cut it to 5-3 when Lucas Kleinschmidt gave him an assist with :33 left in the period.
The Hatchets pulled another 3-0 sweep in the third. Jacob Panzer (A-Kris Gaedtke, Cole Hepner) started it at 2:58, then Bolder mixed it up with a power play score at 10:30 (A-Schoone, Ungerer) and a short-handed goal at 16:48 (A-Schoone).
Merrill fell to 0-3 overall, while Tomahawk improved to 3-1.
Saves-MHS-Stephen Simon 12-17-14-43. Tomahawk-Evan Russo 3-2-7-12.
Pines’ persistence
The Hatchets played a GNC game at Eagle River on Thursday, and fell 6-2 despite an early 1-0 lead and a 3-2 deficit after two periods.
Iwen scored with help from A.J. Bunce just 3:22 into the game and it held up until Pines’ Dylan Weber netted one with 9:33 elapsed.
The Eagles pushed it to 3-1 in the second, but Chris Parker but it to one goal with just 42 seconds left.
Pines took control in the third, with a pair of power play scores followed by an even-handed goal. Noah Weber scored the last two goals of the game.
The Eagles converted 3-of-4 power plays while THS missed on both of theirs.
The Hatchets are at 1-1 in the GNC and 3-2 overall, while Pines is 2-0 and 3-1.
Tomahawk-Evan Russo 11-12-10-33. N. Pines-Danny Hanke unknown.