The UW-Eau Claire Blugolds secured two wins over the Halloween weekend against Saint Benedict. 

Blugolds played at St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Oct. 28-29. 

The final score of the first game came to a 4-1 win.

Hallie Sheridan, fourth-year rehabilitation science student said, “The first regular season game we came out with a win and got the job done.”

Sophie Rausch made the opening goal at 12:33 with an assist by Keira Bolt and Rilee Winters. Minutes later another goal was made at 15:26 with an assist by Emily Hart and Sam Bandholz, giving them a 2-0 lead. 

10:16 into the second period, a goal was made by Rausch with an assist from Hallie Sheridan. There was only one goal scored during the second period. 

By the third period, Blugolds had a 3-1 lead against the Bennies. At 19:18.7, with 49 seconds left in the game, Sheridan scraped by scoring a goal with an assist from Rausch, which led the game to a close with UW-Eau Claire having a 4-1 win. 

Both teams had a combined total of 51 shots on the goal. Goalie  Stephanie Martin stopped 33 of the 34 shots she faced. 

“We learned a lot of lessons and grew as a team from these games, win or lose,” Abbie DeLong, third-year, integrated strategic communication student, said. 

The Saturday game started with the Bennies taking the lead within the first couple of minutes. A goal was soon returned by the Blugolds at 4:25 by Jordyn McAlpine and assisted by Ava Bullert and Hattie Verstegen. 

The Bennies re-established their lead by scoring another goal minutes later, making them ahead by 3-1 after a goal at the 15-minute mark. 

Emily Hart, fourth-year business and psychology student said, “For the majority of Saturday’s game we weren’t connected. We were able to work through it and finally came together to win the game.”

Towards the end of the second period, Sadie Long scored at 13:55 with Samantha Scherling and Rausch assists. 

Later at 16:58, Rausch scored with an assist by Hart, tying the game in the final period. 

The game went into overtime and in the first couple of minutes, the Blugolds scored, winning their game against the Bennies. 

Sheridan said, “We made sure to not get down on one another and focused on the simple plays in order to get it done.”

Rausch scored the game-winning point with an assist by Sheridan. Martin made 28 saves in the goal for the Blugolds. Making that night Martin’s second-highest single-game total of her Blugold career. 

The weekend ended in a two-game sweep of the Bennies, making the Blugolds 2-0 for this season. 

“We still are finding our footing as a team, but we faced our adversities at our games and pulled out a win,” Olivia Smallbrock, fourth-year, exercise science student said. 

UW-Eau Claire will play against Concordia Wisconsin for their season opener on Nov. 1. The puck drops at 7 p.m. at Hobbs Ice Arena. Students, faculty and staff get in free with a Blugold ID. 

Maxwell can be reached at [email protected].