By Justin Dade - Sports Information
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire men's hockey team fell to the No. 3 UW-Stevens Point Pointers 5-2 on Friday night at Hobbs Ice Arena.
The Blugolds entered into this one looking to take control of theWisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) with a win, but ran into a hot Pointers club that has now won nine of their last 11 games. UW-Eau Claire struggled to keep the puck in the first period and were unable to recover in an ugly game that featured 22 total penalties including three majors and two ejections.
UW-Stevens Point would dominate the first half of the first period and got on the board first capitalizing off a Blugold turnover on a goal scored by Willem Nong-Lambert to make it 1-0 just over the half way point of the frame.
Carter Roo would make it 2-0 off a nice pass from Logan Fredericks just over three minutes later. The Blugolds would gain some momentum off a power play late in the period, but were unable to beat Max Milosek to trail by two at the break.
The Pointers would add two more at the 6:09 and 8:08 marks of the second period scored by Nong-Lambert and Tanner Karty to put the Blugolds in a 4-0 hole.
A sweet pass from Lucas Kohls (Jr. – Forest Lake, MN) in the corner to an open Todd Koritzinsky (Sr. – Verona, WI) in front of the net gave the Blugolds some life just over two minutes later to stop the bleeding and make it 4-1. Kohls would get the lone assist on Koritzinsky's fourth goal of the season.
An already chippy game got completely out of hand in a third period that would see 14 total penalties called in the final 20 minutes.
Luke McElhenie made it 5-1 with a shorthanded goal at the 9:24 mark unassisted.
The Blugolds would add a late power-play goal from Johnny Mueller (Jr. – St. Peters, MO) to send it to the final score of 5-2.
After all of the penalties, each team would finish 1-4 with the man advantage. UW-Stevens Point would finish with a 36-31 edge in shots on goal.
Zach Dyment (Fr. - Abbotsford, BC) made his seventh straight start in the cage for the Blugolds and saved 31 of the 36 shots he saw to fall to 4-3 on the season.
The Blugolds (12-8-0, 2-2-0) will look to regroup on Wednesday as conference play continues with a meeting with rival UW-Stout at Hobbs. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
Follow all the action on Blugold Game Day.
