The UW-Eau Claire men’s hockey team pulled out a 5-4 win against Northland College as their first conference game of the season while playing at the Hobbs Municipal Ice Arena on Nov. 18.

This game brought UW-Eau Claire to a 3-2 overall record.

At 11:05 Northland scored the first goal, quickly followed by a goal by second-year finance student Kyler Grundy with an assist from third-year Quinn Green bringing the total to 1-1 for the first period.

In the second period, first-year forward Coalson Wolford scored a goal with an assist from third-year forward Aaron Swanson and third-year forward Ryan Green.

 A second goal was scored by third-year finance student Conner Szmul with an assist from second-year Jordan Randall and second-year Peter Jacobs bringing the Blugolds ahead 3-1.

Following that, Northland scored two more goals tying up the game before Szmul scored again with the assist from Q. Green and second-year Colin Stein pulled the Blugolds ahead ending the second period with a score of 4-3 for Eau Claire.

Northland scored the only goal in the third period, bringing the game to a tie.

Going off the tie the game went into overtime for a five-minute period of three versus three.

The Blugolds scored the game-winning goal, with shot by Grundy at 4:32.6 in overtime bringing the total to 5-4 for the Blugolds.

Szmul said his favorite moment from the game was the overtime goal-winner.

“We really needed that one for standings purposes and we are lucky we pulled it out,” Szmul said.

Grundy and Szmul both scored two goals and were playing a good game overall, according to head coach Matt Leon. 

“I thought Ian Carpenter played a nice, good composed game as a defenseman as a freshman. We have to keep settling the pucks down in our end and he did a nice job of that tonight,” Leon said.

Both Grundy and Szmul were looking forward to playing against River Falls on Nov. 19, also at Hobbs Municipal Ice Arena.

“It’s always a good battle against them. They are a big rival too so it will be a good one,” Grundy said.

The men’s hockey team pulled out another win against the River Falls Falcons the next day. The Blugolds started off with a 3-0 lead until the Falcons scored their first goal bringing the first period to 3-1.

In the second period, the River Falls Falcons started to catch up, bringing the game to 3-2 for the Blugolds.

The final goal was scored in the third period unassisted by second-year student Dawson Klein.

These two games kept the Blugolds undefeated for home games so far.

Overall, the men’s hockey team is at four wins and two losses for the season.

Having the fans to support and get excited about the game by bringing a good atmosphere helps get everyone going, Grundy said.

The next home game for men’s hockey will be against UW-Steven point at 7 p.m. on Dec. 10 at Hobbs Arena.

For more Blugold men’s hockey visit their page at Blugolds.com.

Geske can be reached at [email protected].