Yellowjackets 1, River Falls 1

SUPERIOR, Wis.: The men's hockey side of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has essentially become a two-horse race for the title, with Stevens Point and Eau Claire running away from the pack. Beyond the top two, things are wide open and like most other years, playoff positioning will likely come down to the final day of the season.

Two of the teams in the thick of the race for third took the ice at Wessman Arena Friday night when theYellowjackets hosted UW-River Falls. At the beginning of the day the Yellowjackets had the edge over both UW-River Falls and UW-Stout, holding a two-point lead and in sole possession of third place. At the end of the day, the gap was the same as nothing was decided.

After 40 scoreless minutes where the two goaltenders combined to make 38 saves, each team got on the board in the third period but nothing was going to be decided on this night at the Yellowjackets and Falcons skated to a 1-1 tie.

The tie, coupled with a UW-Stevens Point win at UW-Stout, means the Yellowjackets got a little separation from the Blue Devils, who they now lead by three points. They are two points ahead of River Falls, who they will see Thursday night at Hunt Arena.

River Falls outshot the Yellowjackets 9-8, but the Falcons' generated far better chances than the Yellowjackets in the first period. Taking center stage was Yellowjacket goaltender Oscar Svensson (Södertälje, Sweden/Haga Gymnasium), who made a handful of great saves and also got a little help from the goal post to keep things scoreless in a period played at a frantic pace. There were only 10 faceoffs in the period that was done in a little over 20 minutes.

The second period featured more of the same, but this time the Yellowjackets had the edge in shots. Still the score remained the same.

As the third period unfolded the Yellowjackets were finally able to break through. With 8:09 gone in the frame Will Blake (Champlin, Minn./Breck) took a centering pass and beat River Falls goaltender Joe Marcouiller for his fifth goal of the season and second in as many games to make it 1-0. Coltyn Bates (Brandon, Manitoba/Vincent Massey Collegiate) and Artur Terchiyev (Kiev, Ukraine/Everst Academy) assisted.

But as quickly as the lead arrived, it evaported.

River Falls came into the game scoring at a 25 percent clip on the power play and they took advantage of their only chance in the game. With Terchiyev off for tripping Joel Frazee got a rebound in the right circle and lifted it over a stretched out Svensson to pull the Falcons even at 1-1.

The Yellowjackets got their third power play chance of the night with just 2:29 to play in regulation, but weren't able to regain the lead. River Falls did their best to take the lead as well, but their shorthanded overtures were turned aside by Svensson and the defense.

With the teams in overtime the Yellowjackets nearly made a disastrous blunder. After an icing was waved off all five Yellowjackets went to the bench to change, leaving Svensson on his own to defend a 2-on-0. Ryan Cuzin, who had two points in his Falcon debut last week, got the set-up for the one-timer he wanted, but blistered his shot wide to keep things tied. The clock wound down with each team earning a point Friday.

Svensson was the star of the show Friday, making 33 saves to send his record on the year to 3-3-1. Since taking over in the third period of the St. Thomas game January 5 (16 periods total), Svensson has stopped 181-of-189 shots faced for a save percentage of .958. At the other end Marcouiller finished the game with 34 stops.