Pines skates with top-ranked Tomahawk in 6-3 sectional loss

 The final score wasn’t indicative of how close the No. 4-seeded Northland Pines boys hockey team skated with the top-ranked team in D2, the Tomahawk Hatchets, in a 6-3 defeat in the sectional semifinals Tuesday night. 

After two 6-0 losses in the regular season, Pines hung around for most of the night and nearly outshot the Hatchets at just a 33-26 margin, something Tomahawk dominated in the first two meetings. 

“The boys never quit. That was one of the best games we’ve played offensively against a top-ranked team,” said Pines head coach Zach Otto. “There was no shortage of scoring opportunities on our end. That was a major improvement for us. Just need to finish on those opportunities and clean up a few errors that led to the defeat.” 

The home Tomahawk crowd erupted early as star junior forward Jonah Dickens took advantage of a turnover just 33 seconds into the game and scored on the breakaway to make it 1-0. Dickens finished the night with four goals to propel the Hatchets to victory. 

Pines answered relatively quickly on one of its many powerplay opportunities, having had nine on the night. Freshman Cooper Saari buried a rebound to the right of Tomahawk’s Trevor Seliskar to knot things up at 1-1. The two sides skated hard to find opportunities but both goaltenders stayed clean for the rest of the period until Dickens netted his second with 35 seconds left in the first. It was a 2-1 game after one period and Tomahawk held a 12-5 shot advantage.  

Pines came out with energy in the middle period and fired 15 shots on net. 

Tomahawk’s Jett Reilly fired a shot early in the second that was initially saved by Pines netminder Evrett Leslie, but a second and third poke at the puck forced the puck across the goal line for a 3-1 advantage. 

The Eagles would find an answer again nearly seven minutes later at 9:46 of the second. A lofted pass flew over the Tomahawk defensemen and found the streaking Peter Anderson through the neutral zone and beat Seliskar one-on-one to get back within a point, 3-2. 

Dickens retaliated with his crafty shot and put one top shelf 45 seconds later to regain the two-goal lead. 

His dominance continued as he put the Hatchets up 5-2 at the 11:59 mark and that was the score at the second intermission. 

“Jonah is a great scoring talent. Hard to overcome that,” noted Otto. 

The third period started and had 10 penalties alone as the two teams had to work through a variety of powerplays and penalty kills. 

While on a 5-on-3 power play, Pines’ Michael Schmidt lit the lamp at 4:14 of the third to gain back some momentum while still remaining on the power play. 

Tomahawk killed that penalty and four others to keep a two-goal cushion throughout the third. In a last-ditch effort, Leslie was pulled and Pines had a sixth man on the ice. After a few attempts at the net, Tomahawk sealed the victory with an empty net goal. 

“I couldn’t be any more proud of the way our kids came along this season,” explained Otto. “How they improved individually and as a team was awesome to see. They held themselves accountable and showed everyone that we are a true class act program on and off the ice.  Captains and team leaders stepped up and created a family atmosphere that is very fun to be a part of.”

The Eagles will return a good portion of young talent next season as they look to fight for a conference title.