STEVENS POINT, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – The third-ranked UW-Eau Claire men's hockey team had a tough time at fourth-ranked UW-Stevens Point tonight, falling to the Pointers 6-1 at K.B. Willett Arena.
The Pointers got off to a fast start, scoring three goals in the first four minutes and four goals in less than the first nine minutes.
Stevens Point struck first at 1:03 and scored again at 3:26 before adding another goal 17 seconds later. After another Pointer goal at 8:53, the Blugolds replaced starting goalie Tyler Green (So.-Noblesville, Ind.), who had won four straight and six of the last seven games coming into tonight. Jay Deo (Fr.-Langley, British Columbia) played the remainder of the game in-goal.
In the second period, the Pointers added another goal at 8:24 and the Blugolds also saw their first power-play opportunity of the night with less than two minutes to play in the period. They were unable to capitalize on the opportunity, however.
But in the third period, Eau Claire again found itself on a power-play three minutes into the period after Nick D'Avolio was called for a five-minute major for grasping the facemask. The Blugolds were finally able to put a goal on the board with Charles Thauwald (So.-Rochester, Minn./Mayo) scoring on the power-play, assisted by Daniel Olszewski (Sr.-Janesville, Wis./Craig) and Mark Pustin (Sr.-Northridge, Calif./Granada Hills) at 6:04.
That was all the scoring Eau Claire would get and the Pointers added one more goal six minutes later to go back up by five.
Stevens Point finished the game outshooting the Blugolds 31-26 and Deo made 19 saves while giving up two goals. Green finished with six saves and four goals allowed.
Eau Claire drops to 16-5-1 overall and 5-3-1 in the conference while the Pointers improve to 17-3-2 on the season and 5-3-1 in WIAC play. The Blugolds and Pointers are now tied for second place in the WIAC while UW-River Falls lead by one point after beating UW-Stout 9-3 tonight.
The Pointers and Blugolds will face each other again Saturday night in Stevens Point with the puck set to drop at 7 p.m.
-KM-