SUPERIOR, Wis. – In some ways, Friday was a "Turn Back the Clock" game for the Yellowjacket men's hockey team. For four seasons (2017-21), the Yellowjacket wore gold at home. Last season, the team went back to wearing white at home, and only once sported the alternate gold sweaters at Wessman Arena.
 
With the 2022-23 Yellowjackets off to a 1-3-0 start at home, head coach Rich McKenna elected to pull the gold sweaters back out, in an effort to change his team's fortunes on home ice.

It worked.
 
The Yellowjackets scored 47 seconds into the game, added two more in the third, and shut out Northland College 3-0 in the first game of a two-game weekend set at Wessman Arena.
 
Freshman Colton Friesen (Winnipeg, Manitoba/Dakota Collegiate) factored into all the scoring for the Yellowjackets Friday, assisting on the first goal and scoring the last two. He now leads the Yellowjackets (6-3-0, 2-1-0 WIAC) in goals (six) and points (12) while being tied with Charles Martin (Blainville, Quebec/École internationale Lucille-Teasdale) for the team lead with six assists.
 
At the other end, freshman Dylan Meilun (Morden, Manitoba/Morden Collegiate Institute) turned in another strong performance, making 16 saves to earn his third shutout of the season, and second in a row. He's allowed just one goal in his last four starts. What's even more impressive is Meilun is the first Yellowjacket goaltender to start his career with five consecutive wins since UW-Superior Hall of Famer Dave Graichen won his first six collegiate decisions across the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons.
 
It didn't take long for the Yellowjackets to get on the board Friday. Just 47 seconds into the game Reed Stark (Suffern, N.Y./Douglas County West) took a pass from Friesen and from the left circle put one just under the bar, knocking Northland goaltender Chris Curr's water bottle from the top of the net for his fourth of the season. Sam Sterne (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) also assisted on the play.
 
Things stayed 1-0 through the end of the first period and a slough of a second period. Then early in the third the 'Jackets gave themselves some breathing room. John Stampohar (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids Senior), who has enjoyed a tremendous start to 2022-23, made a rink-wide lead pass to Friesen, who drove wide on the left win and from the left circle snapped a shot over the glove of Curr to make it a 2-0 games at 4:45.
 
Late in the third, Northland pulled Curr in favor of an extra attacker, and with 1:11 to go Friesen iced the game, taking a feed from Martin and scoring into the empty net to push the Yellowjacket lead to 3-0.
 
From there, the only remaining drama was whether or not Meilun would preserve his shutout, and he was only forced to make one more save in the final 71 seconds of play. His current shutout streak stands at 137:44.
 
For the contest, the Yellowjackets outshot Northland 39-16.

The Yellowjacket and LumberJacks will square off in the second game of their weekend series Saturday night. The opening faceoff is set for 7:05 p.m. at Wessman Arena.