The UW-Eau Claire men’s hockey team secured their spot into the next round of WIAC playoffs on Feb. 21 and 22. After a split ticket on the last two games of the regular season against the UW-Stout Blue Devils, the Blugolds won home-field advantage and the 3-seed for a match against Northland College.
“Hopefully we’ve kind of grown through our frustrating regular season,”Head Coach Matt Loen said. “Lots of ups and down so hopefully we can kind of put it all together and be a strong playoff contending team.”
In their first game of playoff contending, first-year Max Dronen scored the first three goals of the game in an 11-minute span.
Max Dronen is one of seven first-years that made the team this year. Factoring in the nine second-years that make up the 30-player team, over half of the team is underclassmen.
“We brought in quite a few new guys,” Loen said. “We’re a bit on the younger side.”
Team captain fourth-year Colin Stein said the team was “gritty” and “hardworking”.
“I would say the first half of the season and a little bit in the second half we really struggled to score some goals,” Stein said. “Even if we were really good, we would lose by one goal and it was really frustrating.”
The Blugolds scored multiple times in each period to win their 8-1 victory in their first game of the WIAC tournament. Third-year Carter Green and second-year Kade Peterson earned the fourth and fifth goals of the night only 12 seconds apart.
“I would say defensively, offensively when their team’s forwards are coming in our zone, you know we’re going to hit,” Stein said. “We’re going to make it as difficult as possible for them to get stuff going, and we just don’t stop working hard no matter what the score is. “
In their second match against Northland on Saturday, fourth-year Kyler Grundy took the opening goal before three minutes had passed. Fourth-year Jordan Randall and second-year Dayne Hoyord pulled two more quick goals, taking the last points of the game just 16 seconds apart.
The team’s regular season record was fairly split between wins and losses. Randall said the wins and losses were their building blocks going into playoffs.
“We’ve had to battle some adversity this year,” Randall said. “Our goal is to win the WIAC tournament and just take it one game at a time.”
Coach Loen said the collaborative aspect of the team’s playing this season, while Captain Stein talked about the team’s mood on the ice.
“Playing together, believing in each other and I think our work ethic has been great all year,” Loen said.
“Everyone’s always laughing and having a good time,” Stein said. “We’re also competing and pushing each other to get better every day. I just had a blast this year with this group of guys. It’s been really good.“
Blugold Hockey is ranked fourth out of the WIAC tournament teams at the moment of writing. If they win the next round of the tournament they will go on to face UW-Superior or UW-River Falls.
“We want to keep building and finding our game,” Randall said. “We’re trying to play our best hockey right now and get to the next round.”
The Blugolds now advance to the semifinal round of the WIAC Commissioner’s Cup Tournament on Feb. 28 and March 1 in their next two-game weekend. Both games will be at 7 p.m. against UW-Stevens Point on their home ice at the K.B. Willett Arena.
Pawlisch can be reached at pawliswj0471@uwec.edu.
