SUPERIOR, Wis. – Last Saturday, the Yellowjacket men's hockey team tied a season high with four goals scored in a win over Saint Mary's. When they scored their first goal of the game, the Yellowjackets broke a goal drought of 176:26.
 
The hope was the win was a harbinger of things to come, and they would start scoring goals at a more consistent clip.
 
Friday the Yellowjackets opened their Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) season playing host to UW-River Falls, looking to win back-to-back games for the first time this season.
 
Unfortunately, the offensive struggles returned.
 
The Yellowjackets outshot River Falls 30-27 in the game, and the defense was again more than good enough to win. Unfortunately, the offense was only able to muster one goal, and the Yellowjackets lost to the Falcons 2-1 at Wessman Arena.
 
With just one goal in the game, the Yellowjackets (1-5-0, 0-1-0 WIAC) have now scored one goal or less in four of six games on the year.
 
The pace was frantic in the early going Friday, with shots and saves even through the first 10 minutes. The Yellowjackets went shorthanded, and even though they killed off the penalty, any momentum they had was sapped and River Falls took advantage. With just 1:15 to play in the period, Max Collette took a shot from the top of the right circle, beating Yellowjacket goaltender Kobe Grant (Vernon, British Columbia/South Kamloops Secondary) on the stick side to make it 1-0.
 
Early in the second period the Yellowjackets had a couple of chances, but River Falls was able to turn those away. Midway through the period River Falls turned a hit into the neutral zone into a rush the other way and Alex Davis made it 2-0, taking a shot from the high slot that beat Grant high to the glove side at 10:54.
 
A few minutes later the Yellowjackets finally were able to break through. Ty Proffitt (Fairbanks, Alaska/Fairbanks BEST) had the puck along the end boards behind the River Falls goal and made a brilliant pass to Blake Holmes (Apple Valley, Minn./St. Thomas Academy) in the slot, and the senior defenseman lifted a shot from in tight past Falcon goaltender Dean Buchholz to cut the lead to 2-1 at 14:33. Chris Ishmael (Oakville, Ontario/Abbey Park Secondary School) also assisted on Holmes' second goal of the year.
 
The Yellowjackets held a territorial advantage in the third, and had a few prime scoring chances. Ishmael hit a pipe from a sharp angle, and Reed Stark (Suffern, N.Y./Douglas County West) was denied at the top of the goal crease. At the other end, the Yellowjackets didn't allow River Falls a shot on goal until there were just five minutes to go. Still, the damage had been done and the Falcons hung on for the win.
 
Grant was solid in net for the Yellowjackets, but again was tagged with the loss, dropping his record to 0-5-0. Grant has allowed just 10 goals in his five games this season. Conversely, the Yellowjackets have scored just six goals in those games.
 
Each team took three penalties for six minutes, and each team went 0-2 on the power play.
 
The Yellowjackets will be back on the road Saturday when they travel to Menomonie to take on UW-Stout. The opening faceoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Fanetti Community Center.