Short-handed Eagles drop two before the holiday

After injuries plagued the Northland Pines boys hockey team earlier this month in a win at Pacelli, the Eagles were short-handed in a pair of games this past week, ending in 3-1 losses to both Marshfield Dec. 17 and to Lakeland at home Dec. 19.
It was a battle of long-time heated rivals when the Northland Pines Eagles hosted the Lakeland Thunderbirds in a Great Northern Conference (GNC) boys hockey game last Thursday in Eagle River.
Pines couldn’t get much of anything going on offense for most of the game, and even though they made it interesting at the end, Lakeland went home with a 3-1 win.
“We still have a couple kids out, impactful players, but no excuses, it’s next man up,” stated coach Zach Otto. “We do have the opportunity to give more kids playing time and experience, and that’s a positive we can take from that.”
The Thunderbirds scored the only two goals of the first period and held Pines to just two shots on goal. Neither team beat the other’s goaltender in the middle period.
The Eagles played better in the third period and Peter Anderson got the home team on the board off a face-off in the Lakeland zone at the 9:16 mark and it was a one-goal game, 2-1.
Pines had a couple of chances in the final minutes, but a Lakeland empty-net goal with 19 seconds left clinched the win for the Thunderbirds.
The Eagles were held to just ten shots on goal in the game.

Marshfield loss

The Pines boys were looking to put one in the win column when they hit the road to play the Wisconsin Valley Conference Marshfield Tigers Tuesday of last week.
Pines dealt with being short-handed and lost 3-1 to the Tigers.
Despite getting younger players more ice time, Otto wasn’t blaming the Eagles’ loss on injuries.
“We didn’t come ready to play and we didn’t get anything going offensively. Not enough shots and bodies to the net,” said Otto. “I thought maybe once the bus legs wore off, we’d pick up the pace and win some races to loose pucks.”
Pines scored first in this one as Cooper Saari converted on the power play, assisted by Sam Shrock at 15:32 of the first period.
That would be the only goal they would get as Marshfield scored once in the first and twice in the second while limiting the Eagles to 15 shots on goal.
Northland Pines finished the week at 4-5 overall and 1-2 in the Great Northern Conference.
Next up, the Eagles will be in Madison from Thursday, December 26, to Saturday, December 28 to play in the Culver’s Cup tournament.