EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) - Led by a Kristin Faber (Sr.-Austin, Minn.) hat-trick, the UW-Eau Claire women's hockey team remained undefeated in the new year with a 5-3 victory over UW-Stevens Point tonight at Hobbs Ice Center.

The Blugolds improve to 9-5-2 overall and 6-4-1 in conference play, and hold a 4-0-1 record since the beginning of January. Stevens Point falls to 9-5-1 on the season and 5-5-1 in the conference.

While the first period saw fairly little action with the teams combing for 10 shots and committing just one penalty, the teams came alive in the second period.

Stevens Point scored three goals in a five minute stretch, beginning at the three-minute mark while the Blugolds came away with two in the same time period. After the opening goal by Stevens Point, Faber answered with a goal 30 seconds later.

With a 1-1 tie, Stevens Point scored again just over two minutes later while Dani Kerr (So.-Little Canada, Minn./Roseville) evened the score back up one and a half minutes later. Less than a minute later, the Pointers found the back of the net yet again to make the score 3-2 just over eight minutes into the second period.

It was all Blugolds the rest of the night as Faber tied the game back up with less than a minute to play in the period. She then recorded her hat-trick, the fourth of her career, at 15:48 in the third period to give Eau Claire a 4-3 lead. The goal also came short-handed, the fifth of her career, which is a school record.

The final goal of the night came as Christine Dickinson (Sr.-Layton, Utah/Shattuck-St. Mary's) added an insurance goal on an empty net with only 47 seconds to play.

Stevens Point finished outshooting Eau Claire 23-20 and Mara Stormer (So.-Waunakee, Wis.) stopped 20 of the shots as she earned the win between the pipes to improve to 4-1-2 on the season.

The Blugolds and Pointers will be back on the ice at Hobbs on Saturday for another contest. The puck is set to drop at 7 p.m.