By Nick Gerhardt
Some extra ice time turned out extra nice for Northfield junior center Jake Geiger Saturday in a 6-1 win over Spring Lake Park at St. Olaf Ice Arena.
When Raiders head coach Mike Luckraft opted to run four lines, it meant double shifting for Geiger, who centers Northfield’s top line with junior forwards Cayden Monson and Kam Kaiser. It also brought Geiger a pair of goals and an assist with his new linemates junior forward Barrett Bradley and sophomore forward Griffin Kennelly on the fourth line. ( clips below )
“It was awesome to give those two guys a chance to play,” said Geiger, who scored for the first time in three games since he had three goals and three assists against Red Wing Dec. 6 in a 12-1 rout.
The Class A No. 9-ranked Raiders (6-2, 2-0 Big 9) needed the extra depth following Friday’s 4-3 victory over Osseo that saw them take seven penalties that shortened the bench. Luckraft has emphasized the need to stay out of the box and Northfield heeded his guidance by not committing a penalty Saturday.
“We have some depth, we have some talented players,” Luckraft said. “We’re better off 5-on-5 than we are 5-on-4.”
Geiger made the transition of adding the fourth line easier with his two-way play.
“He knows when it’s time to jump into the offense and he knows when it’s time to do his job in the neutral zone and defensively,” Luckraft said. “That was really critical playing with two guys who haven’t seen a lot of ice time. It was fun to see those guys have some success.”
That fourth line opened the scoring with Bradley collecting his first career varsity goal with an assist from Geiger 10 minutes, 25 seconds into the game. ( Clip below )
Sophomore forward Brayden Olsen scored less than two minutes later at the 12-minute mark after tapping in a shot with an assist from senior forward Gabe Sawyer. ( Clip below )
Geiger scored his first goal at 11:16 of the second period when he blasted a one-timer to make it 3-0 with assists from Kennelly and Bradley. ( Clip below )
The Raiders extended the lead when sophomore forward Will Cashin cashed in with a goal from in front of the goal on the power play to make it 4-0. ( clip below )
Geiger made it 5-0 with his second goal of the game with an assist from Kennelly at 3:51 of the third period.
The Panthers (3-3-1, 1-2 Northwest Suburban) got on the board with a goal at 8:19 from sophomore defenseman Jacob Rombach with an assist from sophomore forward Drew Lindquist that made it 5-1.
Junior forward Andrew Winter scored at 11:06 after tipping a shot with assists from senior Parker Vogt and senior Braden Brakke that extended Winter’s scoring streak to five straight games. ( clip below )
Northfield fired 46 shots on goal while holding Spring Lake Park, which had beaten Osseo 5-4 Tuesday and Owatonna 6-2 Friday, to just 14 as senior goalie Keaton Walock made 13 stops for the win.
The Raiders get a big test Tuesday when they face reigning Section 1A champion New Prague in New Prague.
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