The UW-Eau Claire Men’s Hockey team hosted their first game of the season at home and finished with a whopping 8-1 victory over Lawrence University (Wis.) Friday night at Hobbs Ice Arena.

Students and community members alike crammed themselves into the stands to watch the face-off between the two teams. The non-conference game was also the first match for Lawrence.

Last season, the Blugolds finished the season with 15 wins, six ties and six losses.

Coach Matt Loen, in his ninth season as coach, said the game was a good first victory for the team. The team has been practicing for two weeks and the group is still getting to know each other. There are 10 new players on the team this year, with 18 returning players.

Once the scoring started, the Blugolds rallied to take advantage of Lawrence’s defense. Mac Jansen scored the first goal in the 13th minute of the first period. Less than two minutes later, Garret Clemment scored the second. After a little more than a minute, Todd Koritzinsky added to that count. Then at 18:18, TJ Stuntz put another goal in for the Blugolds.

The Blugolds finished with four goals in the first period alone.

Scoring continued in the second half for the Blugolds. At 9:44, Jansen, who got the first goal of the game, scored the fifth. Approximately one minute later, senior Patrick Moore got past Lawrence again making the score 6-0.

Last year, Moore scored 30 points throughout the season and was the second highest scorer for the Blugolds following Adam Knochenmus.

Lawrence scored their first and only goal in the 13th minute in the second period. With just less than 30 seconds left in the second period, Eau Claire’s Jesse Tredinnick scored the last goal of the period. The score was 7-1.

In the third period, the Blugolds scored the final goal in the ninth minute by senior player Knochenmus.

Loen said he is excited about the culture of the program and to see the guys have more team camaraderie and work hard, like they did with their game against Lawrence.

Junior player Todd Koritzinsky scored one goal during the game. He was pleased with their game and said for future games, the team should try to have better starts to the games and remember to win as a team.

“We just got to play our game, don’t worry about the refs or other team,” Koritzinsky said.

Sierra Watson, junior journalism student attended the game and said she came to many Blugold hockey games last year and also follows the Minnesota Wild.

“The game was really good, considering we got eight against one,” Watson said.

The Blugolds will play again next weekend away at Saint Mary’s (Minn.) on Friday and at Augsburg (Minn.).

They will play at home again the following weekend, at 7 p.m. November 11 and 12 against St. John (Minn.) and Concordia-Moorhead (Minn.). Home games take place at Hobbs Ice Arena located at 915 Menomonie St. in Eau Claire.