SUPERIOR, Wis. – The final weekend of the 2022-23 regular season was supposed to be joyous for the Yellowjacket men's hockey team. The current team was poised to play for the conference title, trailing their opponent for the weekend, UW-Stevens Point, by one point in the WIAC standings. It was also a weekend of celebration to the past, as the members of the 2002 national championship team came back to Superior for their once-postponed 20-year reunion.
 
Friday didn't go according to plan, as the Pointers upended the Yellowjackets 2-1, ending any hopes they Yellowjackets had at winning a conference championship. Saturday night, the Pointers provided an exclamation point for the weekend, blanking the Yellowjackets 4-0 to complete the weekend sweep at Wessman Arena.
 
The loss, coupled with UW-Eau Claire's overtime win over UW-Stout, means the Yellowjackets (14-9-2, 9-5-1 WIAC) will enter the 2023 WIAC tournament as the No. 3 seed.
 
Saturday's first period was a fast-paced, entertaining period that ended scoreless. The Pointers had the best chance, but their opportunity to take the early lead rang off the post.
 
Early in the second period, the Pointers capitalized on a miscommunication by the Yellowjackets to break the ice. Yellowjacket goaltender Myles Hektor (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) appeared to be in position to cover a loose puck, but one of his teammates poked the puck away from him and the Pointers pounced. Andrew Poulias got the puck in the slot and scored at 3:09 to make it 1-0.
 
Stevens Point extended its lead to 2-0 at 13:41, when Mick Heneghan took a shot from the left point that eluded a screened Hektor.
 
Later in the period things went from bad to worse. The Yellowjackets were already down a man when John Stampohar (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids Senior) was assessed a major penalty, giving the Pointers an extended power play. The power play carried over into the third period, but the penalty killing unit came through in the end.
 
At 2:08 of the third it went to 3-0, when Poulias skated into the Yellowjacket zone uncontested and beat Hektor with a shot high to the glove side.
 
Moments later the Pointers closed out the scoring, as Nick Gonrowski took a shot from the left point that beat Hektor on the short side, making it 4-0 at 14:57 to play.
 
From there the Yellowjackets couldn't get their feet under them, and didn't generate much in way of offense. They were outshot 40-15 in the game.
 
Hektor finished the night with 36 saves and saw his record fall to 3-6-0 on the year.
 
The Yellowjackets will now advance to the WIAC tournament, where they will host Northland in a best-of-three series. The Yellowjackets swept the season series from the LumberJacks in 2022-23, winning 3-0 at Wessman Arena Nov. 25, 7-0 at Wessman Arena Nov. 26, and 2-1 in Ashland Dec. 10. The series will get underway Friday, Feb. 17, with a 7:05 p.m. faceoff at Wessman Arena.