SUPERIOR, Wis.: WHEW!

That's the sound heard from the western tip of Lake Superior Thursday night. A collective sigh of relief for a team that had been riding a wave of hard luck and hard losses. The Yellowjacket men's hockey team entered play Thursday night reeling, having dropped four straight games and going winless in six. With the pressure building, the 'Jackets came out and provided the hometown crowd with one of their guttiest efforts of the 2019-20 season.

After scoring twice in the third period, the Yellowjackets employed an effective offensive attack, complimented by sound play in the defensive zone to earn a 3-2 win at Wessman Arena.

With the win the Yellowjackets (13-6-3, 6-6-0 WIAC) was the second of the year for the Yellowjackets over the Falcons and put them in sole possession of third place in the WIAC standings, one point behind second-place Stevens Point.

The Yellowjackets opened the scoring at 6:52 of the first period when Dylan Johnson (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet) broke out of the right wing corner and worked his way to the front of the net where he slid a backhand past River Falls goaltender Zach Quinn to make it 1-0. It was the 11th goal of the year for Johnson, who last weekend became just the second Yellowjacket freshman since 2008 to put up at least 20 points in his rookie season.

Later in the period the bad puck luck that has plagued the 'Jackets of late came to roost once again. Trey Bagwell took a shot from the left wing that went off Artur Terchiyev (Kiev, Ukraine/Everst Academy), caromed to the slot where it hit Troy York (Plano, Texas/West) in the leg and went into the net to tie the game at 1-1.

It stayed that way until the final minute when the Yellowjackets went ahead for good. Jonny Pace (Hamilton, Ontario/Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary School) hit the crossbar earlier in the period, but this time luck was on his side. Pace got the puck at the top of the right circle and his perfectly-placed shot beat Quinn stick side to give the 'Jackets a 2-1 lead with just 8.4 seconds to play in the frame.

The score remained 2-1 until late in the third period. Coming off of a timeout River Falls pulled Quinn for an extra attacker and the Yellowjackets made them pay. Lawson McDonald (Rosetown, Manitoba/Northlands Parkway Collegiate) got control of the puck behind the net and cleared to neutral ice where York got it, and he buried it into the empty net for his 11th of the year, making it a 3-1 game with 2:14 to go.

River Falls didn't go away quietly, however, pulling back to within one with under 40 seconds to go. And for the second time in the game they used a little puck luck to score. This time, again with Quinn on the bench for an extra attacker, Myles Hektor (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) got the puck behind the net and tried to clear the zone, only to hit Ryan Cusin and have the puck go in the net, to make the final score 3-2.

Coming into the game River Falls was the top special teams team in the country. Included in that was a power play firing at a 31 percent clip. But on this night the Yellowjackets won the special teams battle, scoring the game's lone power play goal and killing off all four man advantage chances the Falcons had.

Hektor got the win in goal, finishing the night with 19 saves to improve to 5-2-3 on the year. At the other end Quinn made 30 saves.

The teams will have their third and final meeting of the regular season Saturday night at Hunt Arena in River Falls.