Boys Hockey: Second-period implosion costs Wingers

Red Wing’s power play had a power outage Tuesday in a 6-2 loss to Holy Angels at Prairie Island Arena in Red Wing.

The Wingers went 0-for-5 on the power play, which included a 5-on-3 advantage for 1 minute, 33 seconds and a five-minute major, and gave up two short-handed goals.

“It was a definite implosion,” Red Wing head coach Mike Belisle said. “No other way to word it.”

The Stars (9-13-2, 9-3-2 Missota) scored twice on the power play and took control of the game in the second period when Red Wing (10-12-1, 6-4-1 Missota) took a five-minute major for boarding.

Holy Angels scored twice during the penalty to take a 3-1 lead, which grew to 4-1 by the end of the period after Tony Haeg’s short-handed goal. Tyler Lodin and Christian Wise scored the power-play goals.

The Wingers, who have lost their last four games, got a break at the 9:42 mark when Frankie Mork got called for charging and then 28 seconds later Lodin took a five-minute boarding major. But Red Wing never took advantage. Jack Strusz hit the post on a slap shot and Taylor Hanson missed an opportunity when Stars’ goaltender Brett Pierce made a pad save on Hanson’s shot.

The Wingers had a goal disallowed during the power play, the second of the game, when Marcus Dodge batted the puck into the net with his stick high above him.

“Mentally we were out of it at that point,” Belisle said.

Red Wing outshot Holy Angels 40-31, including an 18-7 advantage in the first period. The Wingers held a 1-0 lead for 42 seconds in the first period on a goal from Hanson, but Holy Angels’ Andrew Willner tied it at 6:46 on the next shift.

Red Wing has faced two teams ranked in the top five of Class A in fourth-ranked Thief River Falls and No. 1 Hermantown, which helped to improve the team, Belisle said, but the stretch has also been a grind.

“I think we’re hitting a dip in our game because of that trip,” Belisle said. “That’s a four-game stretch of pretty good competition. … You get better playing good teams and our first period showed that tonight.”

The Stars made it 6-1 in the third after Mario Bianchi scored a short-handed goal on an assist from Haeg and Marshall Barnes added a goal.

Strusz made it 6-2 for the Wingers on an assist from Marcus Dodge at the 10:30 mark in the third.

Red Wing will face Farmington Thursday in Farmington and wrap up the regular season Saturday against New Prague in Red Wing at 3 p.m.

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