Boys hockey: Northfield routs Red Wing

By Nick Gerhardt

Northfield peppered Red Wing with shots Saturday to pick up a 7-1 victory at Northfield Ice Arena. 

The Class A No. 6-ranked Raiders (12-1-2, 8-0 Big 9) fired 68 shots on goal while limiting the Wingers (3-13-1, 1-5-1 Big 9) to just nine shots, including just one in the third period. Northfield also went 3-for-4 on the power play and only took one penalty, a far fewer amount than previous games. 

“Obviously we had a ton of puck possession in the zone,” Raiders head coach Mike Luckraft said. “I thought we did a good job of moving the puck around and creating opportunities. They actually, I thought, did a fantastic job of clearing rebounds. We had 68 shots, we probably had 50 of them from point blank. We just couldn’t gather a rebound.”

Senior center Jake Geiger scored twice, including a gorgeous first-period goal that he batted a puck out of the air to score. Senior wings Andrew Winter, Cayden Monson and Kam Kaiser also scored while sophomore forward Christian Whiteman and junior forward Griffin Kennelly tallied a goal. 

The Raiders jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first period and led 5-0 before Red Wing answered with a goal. Gage Starr scored on a rebound at the 14 minute, 47 mark of the period to make it 5-1.

Northfield added power-play goals in the third period as Geiger picked up his second goal and Kennelly tallied his. Monson tallied two assists for a three-point game to join Geiger, who also assisted on a goal for three points. 

“We tried to rotate the puck quickly so we could get it up the ice,” Luckraft said. “Defense did a good job in the neutral zone to force them to dump. They didn’t have many rushes coming through the zone. A little unfortunate on the one goal.” 

Freshman defenseman Ben Geiger, junior forward Will Cashin and sophomore defenseman Bridger Riley all had two assists. 

The Raiders face Mankato East (8-8-1, 3-5 Big 9) Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. at Northfield Ice Arena. Northfield defeated the Cougars 4-1 in the first meeting of the season. The Raiders will try to extend their unbeaten streak to 13 games against Mankato East.