The UW-Eau Claire men’s hockey team came into their home opener this past weekend ranked No. 6 in the nation after winning their opening two games on the road.

However, opening night in Hobbs Ice Arena wasn’t as kind to the Blugolds as they ended in a 3-3 tie with St. Mary’s University (Minn.) on Friday night.

Despite three straight goals after going down 2-0 early, the Cardinals added a late third-period goal to send the game to overtime.

The scoring was opened by the Cardinals 13 minutes into the first period with a deflection goal in front of the net. The Cardinals then padded their lead, scoring with 19 seconds remaining on the power-play in the period.

The Blugolds fought back in the second period as they began to get scoring chances. Sophomore RJ Majkozak got the Blugolds on the board with a goal at 14:28 in the period with assists from junior Brandon Wahlin and senior Ethan Nauman.

Just 39 seconds later, junior Preston Hodge found the back of the net for the fourth time this season with the tying goal on the power play. Then in the third period, the Blugolds broke the tie and took the lead with another power goal by junior Adam Knochenmus.

The Cardinals fought back though, finding the back of the net with 3:13 left in the game to tie it back up. Both teams were held scoreless in the five minute overtime period leaving the game at a 3-3 final.

However, Saturday was a different story as the Blugolds defeated Augsburg College (Minn.) 3-2 thanks to junior Jay Deo in his first start of the year in net.

The Blugolds scored early in the first period on a steal by sophomore Mac Jansen who found the back of the net on a breakaway for his second goal of the year.

The Auggies fought back with under five minutes left in the first period with a goal to knot the game at one.

In the second, the Blugolds pulled ahead just over two minutes into the period with a goal from junior Garret Clemment, however, once again almost immediately after the Auggies were able to respond.

But in the third period the Blugolds broke through with a dagger from junior David Henry on a hard play to the net assisted by Knochenmus.

Eau Claire plays two games next weekend. The first is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Saint John’s University (Minn.) and the second at 7 p.m. Saturday against Concordia College-Moorhead (Minn.).