Adrian Northrup

The UW-Eau Claire men’s and women’s hockey teams struggled with its opponents over the weekend. Both teams recorded a loss and a tie.

Men’s
The Eau Claire men’s hockey team tied St. Scholastica (Minn.) 2-2 and suffered another conference loss to UW-Superior 3-1 this weekend.

The Blugolds drop to 1-4-1 with the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association and 5-5-1 overall.

“It comes down to each individual being ready to go,” senior Dave Coleman said. “We cannot take nights off, it is a short season.”

Eau Claire got on the board Saturday night at the 16:24 mark in the first period with sophomore Greg Petersen’s third goal of the season with junior Sean Garrity on the assist.

St. Scholastica answered just 57 seconds into the second period and added another goal at the 5:11 mark to go up 2-1.

Garrity tied the game up at two with his seventh goal of the season 47 seconds into the third period. The game went into overtime, but neither team was able to capitalize.

“We have to believe in ourselves. We have done some good things,” coach Luke Strand said. “They have been overlooked because of the win/loss columns and we need to be playing our best hockey.”

Sophomore Ryan Mensing had 28 saves while the Blugolds were outshot 30-19.

Eau Claire took on UW-Superior on Sunday and the Yellowjackets scored just 23 seconds into the game to make it 1-0. About four minutes later they extended their lead to 2-0. The Yellowjackets added one more goal with just over a minute remaining in the first.

“I think all the guys need to be ready to play from the drop of the puck on,” Petersen said. “We have not played a full 60 minutes all season.”

The Blugolds would not get on the board until the third period with senior Kyle Garner’s first goal of the season.

“This is the best conference in the country and you have to play 60 minutes to earn victories,”
Strand said.

Eau Claire outshot the Yellowjackets 32-29 and Mensing tallied 29 saves.

The Blugolds are on the road next weekend at St. Thomas (Minn.) and UW-Stevens Point.

“I think we need to play a hard game, we tend to play the other teams style of play,” Petersen said. “We need to play our game and stay within our boundaries.”

Women’s
The UW-Eau Claire women’s hockey team ended its weekend doubleheader against conference opponents Lake Forest (Ill.) with a loss and tie.

The Blugolds moved to 3-4-1 overall and 1-2-1 in the NCHA after losing 4-2 in Friday night’s game against the Foresters and tying the game on Saturday 2-2.

Friday night, trailing 2-0 after quick goals from the Foresters, the Blugolds found a way to answer to cut the lead in half. Senior Karen Hebert found the net with 1:38 remaining in the first to score her second goal of the season to make it 2-1.

“We are facing some hot goaltending right now and we just have to find the net,” coach Mike Collins said.

Just 48 seconds later, sophomore Margaret Campbell hooked up with a pass to her sister, senior Allie Campbell, to knot the game up 2-2 going into the second period.

However, Lake Forest would do the only scoring of the second period to retake the lead, 3-2.

With 2:40 left to play in the final period, Lake Forest found the net again to put the game out of reach. The ‘Golds out shot the Foresters 30-17.

Freshmen goaltenders Mikaela Jobman and Bri Lutz combined for 13 saves in the losing effort.

On Saturday, Eau Claire could not avenge the loss Friday night and had to settle for a 2-2 tie.

Freshman Amanda Alioto struck first with a minute left in the first period, giving the Blugolds an early 1-0 lead. However, the Foresters answered just four minutes into the second, making it a tie at 1-1.

Freshman Krista Milliken swung the lead back to the Blugolds by scoring her first collegiate goal. Freshman Beth Dittrich and sophomore Lauren Havard had the assists.

“It was a great effort, we out played and out shot them,” Collins said, “but we just could not get enough pucks in their net.”

The Foresters took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play and tied the game up at two goals apiece with 8:31 remaining in the third period.

Lutz had 19 saves for the Blugolds as they again out-shot Lake Forest 33-19.

“Bri played a great game and made some marvelous saves for us,” Collins said. “We have to try to find ways to create opportunities. Eighty percent of goals are scored on second and third chances and we have to convert.”

Next up for the Blugolds is UW-Superior at Hobbs Ice Arena on both Friday at Saturday night. The puck drops at 7 p.m.