Men’s Team

Entering their game on Friday against UW-River Falls, the UW-Eau Claire men’s hockey team was coming off a tough game against Lawrence University earlier that week. In the game on Tuesday, Feb. 8,  they scored four goals while allowing four in the process. 

The Blugolds were ahead 4-3 going into the third period until number 15 for the Falcons, James Scott, scored a game tying goal, assisted by No. 6 Curtis Weyerhaeuser and No. 37 Ivan Galaguzov, according to the Blugold Athletics website.

After the tie, the Blugolds rebounded on Friday against UW-River Falls. The 2-1 win was capped off in overtime with an empty net goal scored by Ty Readman, No. 26 for the Blugolds. 

UW-River Falls would have a chance to return the favor the next day as the two teams faced each other on both ends of a back-to-back match-up. However a similar, albeit less dramatic, outcome would follow. UW-Eau Claire would dominate with a 3-0 victory. 

These two wins capped off the regular season. The UW-Eau Claire Men’s team will enter the first game of the Commissioner’s Cup on Friday, Feb. 18,  with a record of 13-11-1, according to the UW-Eau Claire athletics website. 

Women’s Team

The UW-Eau Claire Women’s hockey team entered last weekend with only two losses on the season. The most recent of which came at the beginning of January against St. Norbert.

Since then they have been riding a four-game win streak leading into their game against Northland on Friday, Feb 11. The streak would continue. In a schedule that entailed four games in five days, the Blugolds wound up defeating Northland twice. 

The first game on Friday against Northland ended in a 4-0 victory while the following day’s victory was a shutout as well, ending with a score of 5-0. 

UW-Eau Claire ended this rigorous stretch of their schedule with a game against UW-Superior on Sunday, Feb. 13. 

No. 24 Bree Osborne and No. 15 Hanna Zavora are both seniors on the UW-Eau Claire Women’s hockey team. They spoke about what has led to their success this season and what it has taken for them to stay focused this close to its end. 

“I think something that really helps our team, especially in these last few weeks, is we have started to play for each other,” Zavora said.“We’ve been treating (the games) as team wins and losses rather than individual.”

Osborne would go on to mention the limited nature of the season as an added incentive to stay focused. 

“Knowing that regardless of what grade you’re in, you have limited time in this season and your career as a whole, helps (the players) stay focused on what our end goal is,” said Osborne, the fourth year defenseman. 

Zavora gave a glimpse into what the women’s team does to stay loose and relaxed in between games on the road.

“Right now, people are out in the pool area throwing footballs to each other and doing homework,” she said “I think hanging out with each other in general helps us stay close.”

Erik Strand, the team’s head coach, gave a brief insight into the mindset of the team as they finish off this weekend of games and look on to the last couple games of the regular season.

“We just wanna continue to work on perfecting how we wanna play,” he said. “Every game is an opportunity to demonstrate what we are trying to work on as we are getting down the road, especially towards the playoffs,” Strand said. 

The Blugolds went on to defeat UW-Superior 4-0 later that night. Their last regular season game will be on Saturday, Feb. 19 at home against UW-River falls. The first game of the playoffs will be on Feb. 22, according to the UW-Eau Claire athletics website.
Obadiya can be reached at [email protected]