The UW-Eau Claire mens hockey team has made it to the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association finals for the first time in team history.

They defeated UW-River Falls 7-2 Saturday at Hobbs Ice Arena in their semifinal game.

The game got pretty chippy. Combined, the two teams racked up 18 penalties for a total of 60 penalty minutes. While the number is staggering, Head Coach Matt Loen didn’t think it was too out of the ordinary.

“It’s a rivalry,” he said. “It’s going to be like that, and it’s going to be like that this weekend, too. It’s hockey. It’s hockey and it’s a contact sport. You just have to keep your composure.”

And so far, the Blugolds have kept their composure and are ranked No. 1 in the NCHA, with St. Norbert College (Wis.) coming up just behind them.

While the Blugolds were facing off against River Falls, the Green Knights came out on top during their own semifinal game against St. Scholastica (Minn.), 2-1.

The Blugolds will be battling the Green Knights next Saturday for the Peters Cup and the NCHA championship. The Blugolds are 2-0-1 against theGreen Knights this season, and their most recent game ended with a 3-0 Blugold victory.

Freshman forward Ethan Nauman said he has been a little surprised by the team’s success in his first season.

“I knew there was  a lot of hype coming into it with such a veteran team,” Nauman said. “I thought we’d be playing well, but not what we’re
doing now.”

But despite the Blugolds now 20-4-2 record on the season, Nauman said the men still recognize they have a lot of work ahead of them to win next weekend.

“St. Norbert is a good team, and we’re still feeling like we’re kind of the underdog,” he said. “We’re still trying to establish ourselves as being the leading team in the NCHA.”

But that doesn’t bring the team down.

“We know what we’ve got to do,” Nauman said. “If we play Blugold hockey, we have a good shot of winning.”

And playing Blugold hockey is what has gotten the team so far, and allowed them to defeat River Falls on Saturday.

During the game, sophomore defenseman Chris Heineman and senior forward Jordan Singer each had two goals for the Blugolds.

Heineman said, for him, it was just a matter of getting to the net.

“We talked about getting pucks to the net, and it happened to go through and the end result was two goals,” he said. “They weren’t the hardest or the best shots, but they were on the net.”

Heineman and Loen both said the line of forwards made up of junior Mark Pustin, senior Travis Peckskamp and junior Brian Nehring contributed to many of the night’s goals.

“Those guys worked really hard down low and were able to get the puck up to me,” Heineman said. “They did a tremendous job.”

Pustin, junior forward Daniel Olszewski and sophomore defenseman Jack Callahan also scored for the Blugolds.

Loen said he expects to see the same competition in the finals game.

“It’s going to be physical and there’s going to be a lot of skill shown on the ice,” he said. “There will be a lot of defense and a lot of blocked shots. It’s going to be a fun game for the fans to watch.”

The Blugolds go into the finals with 108 goals on the season.

Tickets are now on sale for the finals game, which will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday in Hobbs Ice Arena.