Posted: Jan 18, 2013
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) — The UW-Eau Claire men's hockey team needed a quick start coming off a tie and a loss in their previous two games. They jumped all over the visiting UW-Superior Yellowjackets early and held on in the end for a 5-2 victory.
Jordan Singer (Sr.-Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) started his big night for the Blugolds (13-3-2, 8-2-1) at 4:29 of the first period. With a scrum in front of the Yellowjackets (10-7-1, 5-5-1 NCHA) net, Singer knocked the puck out of the air into the net for the 1-0 lead.
At 15:22, it was Singer again who took a pass from Isaiah Bennis (Sr.-Eau Claire, Wis./Memorial) and skated across the UW-Superior goalie and slid a backhand into the back of the net for the 2-0 lead.
But before the end of the period, the Yellowjackets responded on a shot from the point that was deflected at the side of the net past Brandon Stephenson (Sr.-Saline, Mich./Saline).
To Yellowjackets made a change in goal to start the second period as Dennis Nordmark replaced Drew Strandberg. New goalie, same result.
The Blugolds took back the two-goal lead early in the second when Jon Waggoner (Jr.-Fairbanks, AK/Lathrop) put away his fourth goal of the season.
Midway through the second, it was Mark Pustin (Jr.-Northridge, Cal./Granada Hills) who took a beautiful pass from Brian Nehring (Jr.-Hopedale, Mass./Milford) and sniped Nordmark to give the Blugolds the 4-1 lead.
UW-Eau Claire was content to protect the three-goal lead in the third period, but the Yellowjackets did cut the lead to two with a little less than five minutes left to play. UW-Superior pulled the goalie with 1:26 left in the game and with 0:13 left to play, Singer put home an empty net goal to complete the hat-trick.
It was a relatively clean game with both teams receiving four penalties each, two of which were coincidental penalties. Both teams finished 0-for-2 with the man-advantage.
The Blugolds outshot the Yellowjackets 33-27 and Stephenson finished with 25 saves to pick up his eleventh win of the season.
The win snapped a two-game winless streak for the Blugolds and a St. Norbert loss to UW-Stout put the Blugolds in a tie atop of the NCHA with the Green Knights. UW-Eau Claire will take on UW-Superior again Saturday night at Hobbs Ice Center with the game set to start at 7:30 p.m.
-JM-