Antigo hockey wins 5-1 over Tomahawk, coaches talk GNC picture

By Craig Marx, Editor

Antigo notched another road win on Thursday night, rounding out its schedule against GNC opponent Tomahawk for the year with a 5-1 win as part of new one-and-done conference matchups of the Red Robins against smaller program opponents.

The new scheduling, which has seen Antigo play both Medford and Tomahawk for the first and last times now this season, came into effect this year.

"A few of the teams agreed at the conference meeting in February of 2016 to drop to a one game schedule based on that option that was implemented into the GNC in February of 2015. A couple of other teams I reached out to personally this past spring/summer. At the end of the day the main reason agreements where collaboratively made was for the best interest of both teams. This allows both teams the opportunity to go out and schedule games that are in the best interest of the players development, while also maintaining conference rivalries," Coach Matt Borneman explained.

Adam Schmidt and CJ Levis picked up a pair of goals each while Tyler Husnick recorded three assists and the opening score for Antigo.

The Robins pounded Hatchets goaltender Shawn Dirkx with 63 total shots, of which he made 58 saves. Jordan Tomaszewski picked up Tomahawk's lone goal in third period unassisted.

"You have to give it to Tomahawk for playing hard for a full 51 minutes and also to their goalie for playing an outstanding game," Borneman said about the Hatchets.

After playing the likes of storied programs such as Stevens Point and Superior in the past two weeks, the win over Tomahawk comes at a time when the Robins' coaching stuff wishes to develop its players early in the hopes for a push at the end of regular season and going into the postseason.

"I feel we are struggling to learn from the lessons we encountered in earlier games. If we want to be in a position to make a run come playoffs we can't afford to take step backwards. And unfortunately last night was a giant step in the wrong direction," Borneman also added.

Antigo travels to Lakeland, another one-game GNC opponent, next Thursday, Dec. 15 at 7 pm.