The UW-Eau Claire women’s hockey team tied 3-3 on the road last Friday, and lost 3-2 at home on Saturday in a weekend home-away series against UW-Stevens Point.

After the weekend action, the Blugolds record is 3-5-3 and 1-3-2 in conference play.

Senior goalkeeper Paige Turner said the team has been working to get more second and third attempts on goal, after shot deflections, and that work payed off with the game-tying third period goal by sophomore Jennifer Thomsen on Friday.

“(The offense) never gave up, and that’s how we got that goal,” Turner said.

Although they may be called garbage goals, Turner said that they are goals they will take.

The Blugolds did not win a game over the weekend, but Turner said she thought her team really surprised a Pointers team that was ranked no. 4 at the end of last season.

“Once they got ahead they thought same old typical Blugolds hockey team,” Turner said.

On Saturday, although the team lost Turner said that the team never gave up at any point in the match.

The Blugolds had 28 shots on goal in the match and the pointers had 33. Norgren scored her second goal of the weekend and Freshman Courtney Baugher also scored in the losing effort.

“Unfortunately we didn’t get some of the bounces on Saturday,” Turner said.

The Blugolds will face the pointers again at the end of next January, and Turner said they will be familiar with the way the team moves the puck and hopes the Blugolds get more shots on goal then.

Turner is one of four seniors on the team. She said although this is her last season on the ice, she is really excited to see what the team does in the future.

This is the first season the Erik Strand has been coaching the team, and Turner said he has done an excellent job getting each and every player to do their job.

“Everyone has stepped into roles this semester,” Turner said.

The team’s goals this year are to get a home game in the WIAC tournament and hopefully earn a bid to the NCAA tournament this year, Turner said. The team would really be able to make their case for an at-large bid by winning as many non-conference games as possible.

The Blugolds have two non-conference games at home this weekend. They play at 2 p.m. against Finlandia University (Mich.) on Friday and at 2 p.m. Saturday against Bethel University (Minn.).