By Nick Gerhardt
It’s turning out to be a physical week for Northfield.
The Raiders weathered a wild third period to hold off Osseo 4-3 Friday night at St. Olaf Ice Arena, which included a 6-on-4 advantage for the Orioles in the final minutes.
Junior forward Cayden Monson scored what ended up as the game-winning goal with 4 minutes, 37 seconds left to play after he shelved a backhand shot on the power play on a feed from junior forward Kam Kaiser to put Class A No. 9-ranked Northfield (5-2, 2-0 Big 9) up 4-2 at the time. ( highlight clip below )
Osseo (2-2, 1-1 Northwest Suburban) scored just 16 seconds later on a rush when senior forward Eli Paloranta scored with assists from senior forward Luke Sawicky and sophomore forward Jake Sawicky.
With 2:09 left to play the Raiders got whistled for a slash that allowed the Orioles to eventually pull their goalie for a two-skater advantage. Northfield staved off any threat to hang on to the win. Senior goalie Keaton Walock made 19 saves for the Raiders in the victory.
The teams combined for 13 penalties in a physical game and it came on the heels of a physical matchup Tuesday with Class A No. 3-ranked Orono where Northfield fell 3-1.
“They were extremely physical and fast,” Raiders head coach Mike Luckraft said of the Spartans. “They kind of put us back on our heels right away for a couple of periods, then we adapted to that and rose to the challenge a little bit in the third period. Even though we lost, it was kind of a good baptism by fire for games like tonight.”
Luckraft admits it’s still a work in progress for his squad as it has shuffled defensive pairings with junior defenseman Elliott Pontow out with an injury. But the two contests showed Northfield can play two styles of hockey when needed.
“We’ve definitely had to adjust our game a little bit to physical play,” Kaiser said. “The speed on our team definitely outworks the guys who just try to hit us.”
Northfield had seven penalties in the game, including a 10-minute major that kept Monson in the penalty box for more than half of the second period. While Monson waited, the Raiders took control of the game.
Andrew Winter started the scoring for Northfield with a backhand goal on a penalty shot he drew after being taken down on a breakaway 8:45 into the second period. Winter collected a stretch pass from senior defenseman Ty Frank at the Osseo blue line before getting hooked on his way to the goal. ( highlight clip below )
Kaiser scored the first of his two goals at 11:22 of the period on the power play in front of the goal mouth on an assist from sophomore forward Will Cashin for a 2-0 advantage. ( Highlight Clip below )
Kaiser made it 3-0 with a one-timer at 13:57 of the period on an assist from freshman defenseman Bridger Riley and it appeared Northfield bounced back from a first period where it got outshot 8-3. ( Clip is below)
But the Orioles got a goal back with 1:46 left in the period when Paloranta knocked in a rebound with an assist from senior forward Andrew LaBerge to keep the game within striking distance.
The Raiders took two quick penalties early in the third period to give Osseo a 5-on-3 power play for 1:34 and the Orioles cashed in when sophomore defenseman Brenden Kranz ripped a one-timer past Walock to make it 3-2 with an assist from sophomore defenseman Tate Brink at 4:31 of the period.
Osseo took six penalties in the game and Northfield scored twice on the power play. The Orioles scored once on the power play.
“I thought overall our penalty kill did a reasonable job but we just have to be smarter,” Luckraft said. “We can’t take seven penalties, including a major, in a hockey game. Teams have too much skill to be able to adjust.”
The Raiders face another Northwest Suburban Conference opponent Saturday with Spring Lake Park (3-2-1, 1-2 Northwest Suburban) at 1:30 p.m. at St. Olaf Ice Arena. The Panthers defeated Owatonna 6-2 Friday in Owatonna and beat Osseo 5-4 Tuesday.
