UW-Eau Claire men’s hockey won both games against UW-Stout over the weekend with an overtime win and shutout on Friday and Saturday.

Friday’s game opened with a scoreless first period, followed by an exchange of goals started by UW-Stout only 52 seconds into the second period, and wasn’t followed until Jake Bresser, a fourth-year forward for the Blugolds, scored his 13th goal of the season more than seven minutes later.

The score remained tied until the Blue Devils scored two consecutive power-play goals in the last four minutes of the second period, which was when they took a 3-1 lead. The Blugolds closed the lead to 3-2 when second-year forward Andrew McGlynn scored his eighth goal with less than two minutes left in the period.

The Blugolds opened the scoring in the third period with another goal scored by Bresser, which tied the game up until Stout scored again, with less than seven minutes left in the game.

The Blugolds continued to trail 4-3 until Bresser scored his third goal in the last 48 seconds, which made it Bresser’s highest-scoring game this season, according to Blugolds.com.

The game went into overtime with the score tied at four points.

The overtime period ended after less than four minutes, when third-year forward Cole Paskus scored his third goal of the season, marking a Blugold victory.

The Blugolds were unsuccessful in all of their four power-play opportunities and allowed the Blue Devils two goals on their four opportunities.

In Saturday’s game, the Blugolds won in a shutout victory. 

McGlynn scored the first and only goal in the first period, as well as a power-play goal with five minutes left in the third period. Third-year forward Jon Richards scored a goal in the first minute of the second period, and first-year forward Nick Techel scored a power-play goal four minutes later.

The Blugolds were successful on two of their four power-play opportunities and were able to kill all five of the Blue Devils’ opportunities.

“Power-plays are something that we need to improve on,” Matt Loen, the Blugold head coach said. “It has been average to below-average all year.”

Loen said the opportunities have been there, but the Blugolds have been unable to convert them. He considers this a good sign.

“Obviously, the first game was way closer than we wanted it to be,” fourth-year forward Logan Von Ruden said. “It was a little wake-up for us this season.”

Von Ruden said he thinks the team learned never to underestimate or expect anything before going out on the ice.

UW Eau Claire is currently ranked second in Division III hockey, according to NCAA rankings. The next highest-ranked team in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is UW Stevens Point, which is currently ranked at No. 13. UW River Falls and UW Superior are both tied at rank No. 19.

The Blugolds will be on the road to Ashland, Wisconsin, where they will play the Northland Lumberjacks this weekend. The Lumberjacks are currently last in the WIAC with a division record of 1-10, and an overall record of 4-16-1, according to WIAC Sports.