EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The Yellowjacketmen's hockey team entered place Saturday with its collective back against the wall.
 
Following Friday's loss at UW-Eau Claire, the Yellowjacketshad a huge mountain to climb, needing to win the regulation game and then a mini-game in order to advance to next weekend's WIAC Championship game. That's a tall order against UW-Eau Claire, one of the stingiest defensive teams in the nation. The Blugolds, who came into the contest ranked No. 4 in the country, needed only a tie to advance.
 
And the Blugolds took care of business.
 
Eau Claire scored single goals in the first and second periods and rode strong defense and the goaltending of Zach Dyment to a 2-0 win over the Yellowjackets Saturday at the Hobbs Ice Center.
 
The Blugolds advance to the conference title game to take on UW-Stevens Point, who swept its weekend series against UW-River Falls. The Pointers will host the game Saturday, March 7.
 
Eau Claire got the eventual game-winning goal at 9:11 of the first period when Tyler Tomberlin tipped a shot from the left point past Yellowjacketgoaltender Oscar Svensson (Södertälje, Sweden/Haga Gymnasium).

It stayed that way until 8:49 of the second period when Adam Parsells took a shot from the left point that was blocked, but the carom went right to Jon Richards in the slot and his shot beat Svensson to make it 2-0.
 
The Yellowjacklets pressed in the third, playing with an extra attacker for the final 3:18 of the game and outshooting the Blugolds in the frame, but they couldn't get anything past Dyment, who recorded his sixth shutout of the year, and second blanking of the Yellowjackets. He finished with 25 saves.
 
Svensson was rock solid at the other end, battling through a nagging injury to made 28 saves.
 
Saturday's game marked the final Yellowjacketcontest for the senior class consisting of Colton Nelson (Grand Rapids, Mich./Edmond North), Liam Blais (Uxbridge, Ontario/Uxbridge Secondary), Bruno Birzitis (Riga, Latvia/Riga Distance Education Secondary), and Andrew Durham (Richardson, Texas/Plano East).
 
The Yellowjackets finished the year 16-10-3, winning six more games than they did a season ago.