SUPERIOR, Wis. - Winning games in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is hard. Gaining a two-game sweep is even harder. Tasking a team with having to take down an opponent three times is incredibly difficult in one of the toughest Division III hockey conferences in the nation, especially when your season is on the line.

That's what the Yellowjacket men's hockey team faced Monday. The 'Jackets closed the regular season with a pair of wins over UW-Stout, winning 6-3 at home March 3 and following that up with a 4-1 win on the road March 5. When the dust settled and the WIAC playoff seedings were announced, the 'Jackets found out they'd be playing at home, but for the third time in six days they would be taking on a Stout team, knowing a win advances them to the WIAC semifinals, while a loss brings their truncated season to a close.

And the Blue Devils gave the Yellowjackets everything they could handle and then some Monday, but in the end the Yellowjackets got the job done, earning a 2-1 win over UW-Stout at Wessman Arena. With the victory, the Yellowjackets (6-3-0) advance to the WIAC semifinals, where they will play on the road at UW-River Falls Wednesday, March 10.

Myles Hektor (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest), who was making his thrid consecutive start in goal for the Yellowjackets was the star of the night, finishing with 34 saves, including 17 in the third period as Stout put the pedal down trying to tie the game. No save was bigger than a stop Hektor made with the right pad in the game's closing seconds. With heavy traffic impeding his view of the puck, Hektor got his right pad on a Raphael Gosselin shot, and directed the rebound away from traffic into the left corner, allowing the Yellowjackets to run out the clock along the boards below the goal line in their zone.

After a scoreless first period the Yellowjackets broke the ice and took the lead at 9:55 of the second period. Dylan Johnson (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet) took a pass from Levi Cudmore (Park River, N.D./Park River), skated into the Stout zone and took a wrist shot from the right circle that went off Blue Devil goaltender Brennan Kitchen into the net to make it a 1-0 lead.

It stayed that way until the 6:07 mark of the third period when the Blue Devils drew even. On their second of four third period power plays, Kobe Keller got a rebound in tight and beat Hektor to tie the game 1-1.

The Yellowjackets got the eventual game-winning goal at 9:09 of the third when Chad Lopez (Arlington, Texas/University of Texas) got a rebound to the left of the net and scored his team-leading sixth of the year, putting them back in front, 2-1.

From there Stout continued to apply relentless pressure, and in the offensive zone were taking shots from everywhere trying to tie the game. In the closing minutes the Yellowjackets blocked numerous shots and paid the price to get the playoff victory.

Hektor improved to 3-0-0 on the year following his big performance. At the other end Kitchen was equally good for Stout, finishing with 39 stops.

The Yellowjackets and UW-River Falls will meet in the playoff for the first time since 2018. That year the Falcons won the WIAC first round series, defeating the Yellowjackets Friday and advancing on a tie game Saturday. The opening face-off at Hunt Arena is set for 7:05 p.m. Wednesday.