With two back-to-back wins in the WIAC semifinals weekend, the UW-Eau Claire women’s hockey team is one step closer to winning the WIAC Tournament O’Brien Cup Championship.
Eau Claire started the Saturday game strong with a goal in the first 92 seconds by fourth-year Quinn Hartmetz, following the momentum of Friday night’s 4-0 win. Stevens Point followed soon after, but Eau Claire quickly answered with two goals in two minutes from first-year Jana Lesch and first-year Lauren Ballinger. Each team went on to score one more goal during the period.
“That’s the strength of our team.” Head Coach Erik Strand spoke on the momentum coming off of Friday’s win. “We do have a lot of players that can create offense, we can score in different ways and I thought we did a really nice job today of getting to the net and … just executing on opportunities they created … I was just really happy with how we attacked.”
Third-year Rachel Mirwald, second-year Madisyn Krymholz and fourth-year Ellie Andersen found the back of the net within three minutes of each other in the second period. Mirwald scored another goal five minutes later, rounding out four in the second period for UW-Eau Claire and eight goals overall. Second-year Maddie Hulter gave some insight on what happens on the ice during a quick-thinking play like this.
“We just feed off of each other, feed off of that momentum, just keep putting them into the net. Everyone’s shooting for each other, it’s really upbeat, the mood is awesome,” Hulter said.
While there were zero goals scored by either team in the last period, the focus on maintaining momentum kept the intensity high, according to Hulter.
Eau Claire’s strengths were on full display. Strand said, “[This is] one of our fastest teams we’ve ever had on the ice together.”
The team showed their cohesive playing by staying aggressive with the puck, with 17 total shots on five different power plays. They maintained a 19-8 record this season and beat UW-Stevens Point in every game this year.
“I think they’ve done a nice job of growing together and just the way that they’re working together and pushing as hard as they are,” Strand said. “Their commitment to every single day just trying to become better has been incredible.”
Eau Claire’s commitment to improvement shone in the level of hockey on display from the team.
“[The team will continue] to get faster … build confidence, know that we can do it and be absolutely relentless.” Strand said.
This will be UW-Eau Claire’s 9th season facing UW-River Falls in the O’Brien Cup Championship. Eau Claire is preparing to play against WIAC first-seed River Falls. As for what the team is focusing on for the final match, Strand said it’s all about speed.
“Our focus is to continue to focus on making sure that we’re battling hard for pucks, we’re taking care of pucks, as far as when we get pucks deep, making sure that we’re exiting our zone really fast, as quick as possible, eliminating grey zone turnover,” Strand said.
“Keeping minds open and knowing that the last few games against River don’t mean anything. It’s playoff hockey now, it’s do or die. You gotta just go for it.“ Hulter said about the team’s main focus. “Keeping an upbeat mood and just having an intense practice next week and just keeping high hopes.”
With this forward momentum and charged energy, Eau Claire will meet River Falls in a highly anticipated final match at 2 p.m. on March 8 at Hunt Arena.
Wollner can be reached at wollnedm7148@uwec.edu.
