For the first time in the history of the program, the men’s hockey team advanced to the second round of the Peters Cup playoffs Saturday. Eau Claire played three games against UW-Superior, winning the first and third game to advance.

“It’s good to see the program taking a step forward,” senior Sean Garrity said. “Our hard work has paid off.”

The Blugolds have never advanced to the second round of the playoffs, and the last time they won a playoff game was in 1995 against UW-River Falls. That game also took place during coach Matt Loen’s senior season with the Blugolds.

“It feels great, Eau Claire has never done (this) before,” junior Greg Petersen said. “It’s kind of surreal right now, but we’ve got another week of life.”

After winning Friday night’s game 4-2, Eau Claire fell 5-0 in the second game on Saturday. As a result, a mini-game of 20 minutes was played to determine the winner.Garrity lit the lamp early in that game, giving the Blugolds the victory.

“It felt good,” Garrity said. “There was still quite a bit of time left, but then we knew we had a good chance at winning.”

The Blugolds split the season with Superior, winning the first game 3-1 in Superior, but dropping the second 2-1 in overtime on Feb. 8.

The Blugolds will now face UW-Stout in one playoff game on Saturday.

Junior Jesse Vesel got the Blugolds started on Friday scoring at 12:37 in the first period. The power play goal came with assists from freshman Dan Decato and Garrity.

The Yellowjackets came back and tied the game early in the second period, but junior Andrew Johnson put the puck between the pipes a minute later to take back the lead. Sophomore Joe Bluhm had the assist.

Junior Dan Fina added another goal in the second period, which became the eventual game winner. Sophomore Bryan Plaszcz and junior Greg Petersen assisted.

Johnson added another goal in the third period, giving Eau Claire the 4-2 victory.

“Offense has been a bit of a struggle,” sophomore goalie Tyler Brigl said. “But everyone played their position and we got the win.”

Brigl had 19 saves on the night.

His defensive players backed him up, Brigl said.

“They are like family,” Brigl said. “They treat me well, I try to treat them well. We just work really well together.”

Saturday’s game did not go as well for the Blugolds as Superior found its offense, scoring five goals on Brigl. Eau Claire could not get on the board, and was shut out 5-0, forcing a mini game.

“We came out a little flat,” Petersen said. “Superior changed their lineup a little bit and they came out strong. We were a little bit on our heels, but we rebounded pretty well from that.”

The Blugolds have lost twice to Stout this season, the first a 2-1 loss and the second a 4-1 loss on Feb. 1.

“We know Stout’s a good team,” Petersen said. “They are highly offensively skilled, and they have a great power play. The key thing is we need to stay out of the box. We need to work on our defense and control that end of the ice.”

The playoff game between the two teams begins at 7:30 p.m. in Menomonie.

“We are just going to practice hard this week and be able to play our systems,” Garrity said. “We’ve been playing pretty well lately, so we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing.”