The UW-Eau Claire men’s hockey team lost both games this week, the first to UW-River Falls on the road on Thursday, the second to UW-Stout in a shutout at home on Friday.
In Thursday’s game the Blugolds fell to River Falls 3-2. River Falls outshot Eau Claire 26-22 over the duration of game, but the Blugolds had more shots in both the first and second period.
The Blugolds faltered a bit in the the third period, something freshman forward Ross Andersen said he’s noticed.
“We’ve been playing decent the first two periods,” Andersen said. “We just kind of have to come together as a team in the third period and finish out games. It seems to be our biggest weakness the last four games.”
Andersen scored both of Eau Claire’s goals on Thursday, earning the first goal of the night at 9:41 in the first period. Sophomore defenseman David Donnellan and senior forward Tyler Romasco assisted on the goal. However, less than a minute later, River Falls freshman Steve Zierke was able to tie the game.
In the second period, Andersen scored the second goal for the Blugolds at 1:56, assisted by Romasco again and junior forward Jordan Singer.
“Our line was just playing well together,” Andersen said. “(The goals) were both rebounds. It was just good work by the other guys on my line, and I just happened to be in the right spot.”
The Falcons quickly tied up the game again, scoring at 3:33 in the second and scoring the winning goal at 11:49.
Coach Matt Loen said the team has been playing well, but they’re still having trouble getting goals.
“I think we’re a better team than we were last year, but we’re in the same spot as we were last year,” Loen said. “So it’s frustrating.”
Loen said that the other teams have been capitalizing on small mistakes made by the team, something the Blugolds don’t do.
“(Thursday) they flipped the puck up, our (defense) tried to play it and he missed it, and they went in on a breakaway,” he said. “It’s just little things like that where the other teams are scoring goals and we’re not.”
Friday’s shutout loss against Stout was another tough game for the Blugolds, who out-shot their I-94 rivals in eachl period. By the time the game was over, Eau Claire had a 49-32 lead in shots, but still dropped the game 2-0.
After a scoreless first period, Stout got on the board first at 13:56 in the second period, and solidified their win with another goal at 13:06 in the third.
The Blugolds had five straight minutes with a power play to start the second period, but were unable to score.
This was due in part to Stout’s junior goalie Tom Lecovich, who saved 21 goals in the second period, something that Romasco said was tough to play against.
“We ran into a hot goalie, for sure,” Romasco said. “Hat’s off to the Stout goaltender. He played a great game. We went to the net hard, but we just couldn’t bang in a rebound.”
In net for the Blugolds was freshman goalkeeper Andrew Martin, who saved a total of 30 shots throughout the game.
Next weekend will be the last two games of the Blugolds’s regular season, and Andersen said he’s hoping the team is able to start playing as they would during the playoffs.
“We need to start playing with intensity the whole game,” Andersen said. “We just have to start winning these tight games. Playoff games are going to be tight so we have to start winning the close games.”
