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University of Wisconsin-Superior Athletics

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Wisconsin-Superior
Yellowjackets
Pat Dalbec
Jed Carlson-Superior Telegram

Men's Hockey

Struggles continue for men's hockey

Pat Dalbec
Box Score

Eau Claire 5, Yellowjackets 2
Box Score

Coming off last weekend's home sweep at the hands of St. Norbert College, the Yellowjacket men's hockey team hoped a change of venue would mean a return to the win column.  For some reason, the road has been the provider of better results than Wessman Arena has been of late, as the Yellowjackets entered the game 4-1-1 away from home.

On the other side, UW-Eau Claire entered the game as one of the better teams in the country, and have always been a tough opponent on their home ice.

That was the case on Friday night.

The Blugolds scored twice in each of the first two periods to blow the game open and hand the Yellowjackets their fourth straight defeat, 5-2 at the Hobbs Ice Center on January 18.

The victory pulled UW-Eau Claire into a first place tie with St. Norbert College, who lost at home to UW-Stout on Friday.  The Yellowjackets, meanwhile, remain tied for third place in the NCHA with UW-Stevens Point who was idle on Friday.

Jordan Singer opened the scoring for the Blugolds just 4:29 into the game.  A mad scramble in front of the Yellowjacket net saw the puck pinball around, before going off Singer into the goal to make it 1-0.  Singer struck again 15:22 of the first.  David Donellan sent a long pass from his own zone to Isaiah Bennis who had snuck behind the Yellowjacket defense.  As the defense converged on him, Bennis spun off the check and fed a pass to Singer on the left, who waited out Drew Strandberg (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Westgate CV&I) and slid the puck home to make it 2-0.

The Yellowjackets got on the board just over two minutes later.  Marc Fortin (Pottageville, Ontario/King City Secondary) had the puck on the left wing and sent a pass to the left point to Christian Belobaba (Virginia, Minn./Virginia) whose shot was tipped home by Josh Kesler (Naperville, Ill./Northville) to make it 2-1.  Kesler's second goal of the season came at 17:27.

The Blugolds carried the play in the first, outshooting the Yellowjackets 16-5, so the visiting team went to the locker room fortunate to be down by just one.

As the second period started the Yellowjackets replaced Strandberg in goal with Dennis Nordmark (Vasteras, Sweden/Widenska Sports College), but the freshman from Sweden didn't fare much better, although he made a big save early on the penalty kill.  The Blugolds caught the Yellowjackets in a bad line change and sent Kurt Weston in alone, but Nordmark stopped the shot with his right pad.

Shortly after the penalty was killed off, Jon Waggoner tipped a Jack Callahan shot into the goal to make it 3-1 2:38 into the second.  As the period neared the midpoint the Blugolds extended the lead to 4-1.  Travis Peckskamp sent a long breakout pass to Brian Naehring on the left wing, who saucered a pass into the middle for Mark Pustin.  Pustin knocked the puck out of the air and went in alone, beating Nordmark on the stick side for his seventh goal of the season.

The Yellowjackets shaved the deficit to two late in the third period.  Wes Judnick (Virginia, Minn./Virginia) sent the puck from the left point around the boards to the right wing, where Kyle Leahy (Fort St. John, British Columbia/North Peace Secondary) picked it up and dished to Pat Dalbec (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) in the right circle.  Dalbec wired a wrist shot over the shoulder of Blugold goaltender Brandon Stephenson and it was 4-2 with 4:38 left in the third.

With the deficit still two and time waning, the Yellowjackets pulled Nordmark for an extra attacker, but it was the Blugolds who found the back of the net.  And again it was Singer, scoring into the empty net for his third goal of the game and 12th of the year to make the final score 5-2.

Strandberg made 14 saves in the first period before yielding to Nordmark, who also finished with 14 stops.  Nordmark took the loss, falling to 1-2-0 on the year.  At the other end, Stephenson made 25 saves in the winning effort for UW-Eau Claire.

Each team took four penalties for eight minutes in the game, and each team went 0-for-2 on the power play.

The Yellowjackets (10-7-1, 5-5-1 NCHA) will look to snap their losing skid on Saturday, January 19 in game two of their series with the Blugolds.  Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. and can be heard live on 91.3 FM KUWS, beginning with the pre-game show at 7:15 p.m.  If you are outside the local listening area, you can tune in on the Internet through the iFan Sports Network.  Jon Garver will have the call.
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