UW-Eau Claire women’s hockey left UW-River Falls with a loss on Saturday, walking away with a final score of 4-1.

Although they didn’t secure a victory, the Blugolds put up a fight from the start.

Eau Claire scored the first goal of the game, 6:53 into the first period. Elizabeth Bauer, a sophomore forward, shot the puck with an assist from Kelly Knetter, a junior forward.

The Blugolds held onto that lead before entering the next period.

“We came out fired up and in control of the first period,” Reilly Albert, a sophomore defenseman, said. “We stayed strong going into the second before running into trouble with penalties.”

Eau Claire had three penalties in the second period, with two minutes in the box for each.

Both of River Falls’ goals in the second period came in a result of power plays, according to Albert.

“It (River Falls’ scoring) was hard to come back from,” Albert said.

In the third period, River Falls continued to put pucks in the back of the net two more times, driving the score up to 4-1.

Throughout the entirety of the game, however, the Blugolds held strong defense. River Falls only scored one goal, five-on-five, with two power play goals and one open net, Mariah Czech, a senior forward.

“We worked together and dominated the whole game,” Czech said. “The game could have turned out completely different.”

This is now the sixth game in which the Blugolds have outshot their opponents. On Saturday, they had a total of 28 shots on goal over River Falls, which had 21.

The team worked so smoothly and noticeably pulled through together, Holly Turnbull, a junior forward, said.

“Contrary to the scoreboard, the game went very well,” Turnbull said. “A little puck luck didn’t go our way, but our effort was there and that’s all you can ask for. This is a very special group of young ladies.”

Looking ahead to their next game, Albert said she is ready for the team to continue to work on their power plays and penalty kills, knowing they have big matchups ahead.

“I’m excited to see how the team stacks up against some of the best teams in the West come January,” Albert said. “We continued to learn throughout the game, and now we know what we have to do the next time we see them.”