ASHLAND, Wis. - The long-awaited and much-anticipated start to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men's hockey season is here. Last week the Yellowjackets played, and won a pair of exhibition contests, but beginning tonight the games are for real.

Rewind a week and the Yellowjackets picked up a 3-0 win on the road at Northland. Last Friday they defeated the Lumberjacks at home by a 9-3 margin. This time the meeting was different. There were points on the line.

Northland opened and closed the scoring, but in between the Yellowjackets got five consecutive goals from five different players, rolling to a 5-2 win over the host Lumberjacks at the Bay Area Civic Center in Ashland.

With the victory, the Yellowjackets are tied with UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stout, who both had convincing wins in their respective openers, atop the conference standings.

The Yellowjackets started a bit slowly and fell behind as Northland scored the only goal of the first period. Zach Ross took a slap shot from the left circle that got through a lot of traffic in front of the Yellowjacket goal, beating Oscar Svensson (Södertälje, Sweden/Haga Gymnasium) to make it a 1-0 game.

Early in the second period the 'Jackets drew even. Lawson McDonald (Winkler, Manitoba/Northlands Parkway Collegiate), who had two assists in the game, found Troy MacTavish (Kanata, Ontario/Earl of March) in the right circle and the junior center put a shot past Northland goaltender Chris Curr from the right circle to even the score at 6:29 of the period. The Yellowjackets took the lead for good in the final minute of the second. Charles Martin (Blainville, Quebec/École internationale Lucille-Teasdale), who scored for the first time as a Yellowjacket last Friday, picked up his first goal that counted with 37.8 seconds to play in the frame, sending a shot from the right circle past Curr's glove to make it 2-1. Pavel Mikhasenok (Yekaterinburg, Russia/Everest Academy) and Jordan Martin (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Vincent Massey Collegiate) assisted.

The Yellowjackets scored the eventual game-winning goal at 5:43 of the third when an errant puck in the Northland zone came to Levi Cudmore (Park River, N.D./Park River) in the slot, and his perfectly placed shot lit the lamp to give the Yellowjackets some breathing room. Ty Proffitt (Fairbanks, Alaska/Fairbanks BEST) extended the lead at 9:19, getting a pass in the slot from Zach Bannister (Grande Prairie, Alberta/St. Joseph Catholic) and sliding a shot home to make it a 4-1 game. Then at 14:34 the lead went to 5-1 when Will Blake (Champlin, Minn./Breck School) took a shot from the right circle that Curr got a piece of, but it snuck past him and over the line for Blake's first of the season.

Northland would close out the scoring with a tic-tac-toe goal of its own at 15:26. Josh King took the goal mouth pass at the right post and deflected it past Svensson to make the final score 5-2.

McDonald, Mikhasenok and C.J. Walker (Boise, Idaho/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame) all finished the night with two assists to pace the offense.

Svensson got the start for the Yellowjackets and finished the night with 28 saves. Curr was much busier at the other end, being forced to make 53 stops for Northland.

The Yellowjackets and Lumberjacks will meet up once again Friday, February 5. The opening faceoff is set for 7:05 p.m. at Wessman Arena in Superior.

UW-Superior and Yellowjacket Athletics will follow the COVID-19 safety guidelines and protocols recommended by the Douglas County Health Department. To conduct our events in the safest manner possible, spectators will not be permitted at UW-Superior home athletic events. Fans can follow the Yellowjackets through our online content provider, the iFan Sports Network. Fans can also listen to contests live on the radio home of Yellowjacket sports, 91.3 KUWS.