EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – The UW-Eau Claire men's hockey team outshot and outscored No. 3 UW-River Falls as it went on to give the Falcons their first loss of the season, a 5-2 Blugold win.
It was a fast paced intense first period. The fastest game Hobbs has seen this season. Alex Olson (So.-Devils Lake, ND/Devils Lake) was called at 4:13 for holding and within 20 seconds River Falls did what it does best, it scored on the power play. Drew Darwitz (Jr.- Woodbury, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) followed that up with the same thing two minutes later as he scored a power play goal at 6:46 after Falcon player Jeff Burke was called for Interference. With 1:08 remaining on the clock the Falcons broke the tie and regained the lead 2-1 going into the first period break.
The Blugolds came out ready to play in the second and retied the game up 2-2 when Ross Andersen (Fr.- River Falls, Wis./River Falls) would score his first goal of the night 18 seconds into the second period. He was assisted by Kurt Weston (Jr.- Roseau, Minn/Roseau) and Tyler Romasco (Sr.-Perry, Ohio/Perry). The second period would remain quiet until 16:14 when Jared Williams (So.-West Chicago, Ill./Bartlett) would get a pass from Devin Mantha (Jr.-Sturgeon Falls, Ont./Ann Arbor Pioneer) and Tyler Jundt (Sr.-Williston, ND/Williston) that he would place perfectly in the top right corner of the goal.
Going into the third period the Blugolds had a one goal lead. They would go on to extend that as Andersen scored his second goal of the night, an unassisted wide open shot that got past the goalie at 7:05. Jon Waggoner (So.-Fairbanks, AL/Lathrop) would get the final goal of the night at 10:43 and the Blugolds held on to their lead to the end as they clinched the win with a final score of 5-2.
Staying strong in goal for the Blugolds tonight was Brandon Stephenson (Jr.-Saline, Mich./Saline). He had 21 saves on the night and improves to 6-4 on the season.
The Blugolds will face off against the Falcons again tomorrow at the Hobbs Ice Center. The puck will drop at 7 p.m.
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