STEVENS POINT, Wis. – When Rich McKenna was hired to be the head coach of the Yellowjacket men's hockey team in 2016, he promised his teams would relentlessly pursue the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) championship. Arguably the toughest league in NCAA Division III hockey from top to bottom, winning the WIAC is an accomplishment and will typically lead down the path to even bigger and better things.
 
In his fifth season at UW-Superior, the pursuit of that conference title by McKenna and his teams has come to fruition.
 
The Yellowjackets rallied from a two-goal deficit and rode a masterfully played third period to a 3-2 win over No. 3 UW-Stevens Point Friday at K.B. Willett Arena in Stevens Point.
 
In what could be a defining victory in McKenna's coaching tenure, the Yellowjackets (7-3-0) secured the program's eighth WIAC Championship, and first since 2011. Combined with regular season and playoff championships from the program's years in the NCHA, the Yellowjackets have now won conference titles 17 times.
 
The Yellowjackets got off to a strong start in the first period, owning a territorial advantage and holding the momentum for most of the period, but the teams went to the locker room scoreless.

Early in the second period the Yellowjackets went shorthanded and the Pointers made them pay, with Colin Raver scoring on the power play to put Stevens Point ahead 1-0 at 2:43. The Pointers killed off a penalty of their own and right after extended their lead when Carter Roo put one between the pads of Yellowjacket goaltender Myles Hektor (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) to make it 2-0.

A strong forechecking shift midway through the second helped the Yellowjackets cut the lead in half. The line of Jordan Martin (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Vincent Massey Collegiate), Coltyn Bates (Brandon, Manitoba/Vincent Massey Collegiate) and C.J. Walker (Boise, Idaho/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame) worked the puck around the Stevens Point zone before Bates picked up a loose puck at the goalmouth and pushed it home for his fourth of the year, making it a 2-1 game at 11:41.
 
Down a goal, the Yellowjackets took the ice in the third and controlled the play the rest of the way. The 'Jackets didn't allow the Pointers to have a shot on goal until there were nearly five minutes left, and in the meantime put a couple on the board to take the lead.

Levi Cudmore (Park River, N.D./Park River) got the puck into the slot and Chad Lopez (Arlington, Texas/University of Texas) took it from there, wiring a shot past Pointer goaltender Ryan Wagner, tying the game at 9:12.
 
Moments later the Yellowjackets went to the power play, and the man advantage game them everything they needed to pull in front.
 
Great puck movement at the blue line gave Artur Terchiyev (Kiev, Ukraine/Everest Academy) an opening, and he found Lopez in the left circle. The junior fired a shot that was redirected home by Cudmore, and the 'Jackets led 3-2 with 6:36 to play in regulation.
 
As play wound down, the 'Jackets buttoned things down defensively, not giving the Pointers an opportunity to get the puck deep and begin forechecking in search of the equalizer. Time would expire with the puck in the Stevens Point zone and the Yellowjackets winning the 2021 conference championship.
 
Myles Hektor (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) made his fourth start in goal for the Yellowjackets and improved to 4-0-0 on the year, finishing the night with 22 saves. At the other end, Wagner was a little busier, as he finished the game with 29 stops. The Yellowjackets outshot the Pointers 32-24, including 11-4 in the third period.
 
The Yellowjacket senior class that claimed the conference title includes Connor Hamonic (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Vincent Massey Collegiate), Troy York (Plano, Texas/West), Alec MacKenzie (Ottawa, Ontario/École Secondaire Garneau), Pavel Mikhasenok (Yekaterinburg, Russia/Everest Academy), Lawson McDonald (Winkler, Manitoba/Northlands Parkway Collegiate), and Oscar Svensson (Södertälje, Sweden/Haga Gymnasium).