By Justin Dade, UWEC Sports Information
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire men's hockey team fell 3-1 on the road to the Marian University Sabres on Sunday night at Blue Line Family Ice Center.
The Blugolds were looking to string together their third win in five days, but ran out of gas on the road against a tough Marian team in a game that was rescheduled from earlier in the season.
UW-Eau Claire would quickly fall into a 2-0 hole after the first 12 minutes of play with goals scored by Connor Blanck and Clay Cross with one coming on the power play.
They would trail 9-7 in shots on goal after one period of play but hold the slight 7-6 lead in faceoff wins.
The Blugolds cut the deficit in half with 15:56 left in the second period on a goal scored by Colton Wolter (Sr. – Fairbanks, AK) to make it 2-1. Jake Bresser (So. – Eau Claire, WI) would be credited with the assist on Wolter's fifth goal of the season.
UW-Eau Claire would get four straight power plays right after Wolter's goal, but were unable to create many scoring chances on any of the opportunities. A pretty poor result considering how hot the power play had been as of late - 37.5 percent in the previous three games.
The Blugolds would dominate in shots (12-2) in the period with the extensive time on the power play, but would still trail 2-1 after 40 minutes of hockey.
UW-Eau Claire would kill off some crucial penalties in the third period to give themselves a chance to tie things up late in the game with the net empty. The Sabres would end the comeback hopes on an empty net goal scored by Hunter Stewart to go on to win 3-1.
The Blugolds would finish 0-6 with the man advantage for the night.
Zach Dyment (Fr. - Abbotsford, BC) made his 10th straight start in net for UW-Eau Claire and saved 14 of the 16 shots he saw on the night in the loss to fall to 6-4.
The Blugolds (14-9-0, 4-2-0) will take the next week off after playing five games in the last 11 days before returning home for more WIAC action against UW-Superior on Feb 9.
Follow all the action on Blugold Game Day.
