SUPERIOR, Wis. – The Yellowjacket men's hockey team has picked a bad time to have their first three-game losing streak of the 2022-23 season.
 
For most of the year, the Yellowjackets had done a good job of not letting losses pile up. They did have nine on the year entering play Friday, but only twice had they lost consecutive games. The first time came in mid-January, and the second time came last weekend when they were swept by UW-Stevens Point in the final series of the regular season.
 
After Friday, make that three losses in a row.
 
The Yellowjackets entered the WIAC tournament as the No. 3 seeded team, and now they find themselves in a win or go home scenario following Friday's 3-1 loss to Northland at Wessman Arena.
 
With the loss to the LumberJacks, who came into the game with just one win on the season, the Yellowjackets (14-10-2) will now have to win the regular game Saturday, as well as the mini-game to keep their season alive. Northland, meanwhile, needs only a tie in the regulation game Saturday to advance to the WIAC semifinals.
 
The Yellowjackets came out a bit flat but still scored the first goal of the game, something they've now done 20 times in 26 contests.
 
Moments after their first power play chance expired, Chris Ishmael (Oakville, Ontario/Abbey Park Secondary School) worked his way through traffic in the neutral zone, skated into Northland territory, and from the left circle wired a shot over the glove of LumberJack goaltender Chris Curr to make it 1-0 with 3:07 to play in the first period. John Stampohar (Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids Senior) and Bradley Stonnell (Surrey, British Columbia/Tamanawis Secondary School) assisted.
 
Any momentum gathered by the goal quickly went by the wayside, however, as the Yellowjackets took their third penalty of the first period a few seconds later. The penalty carried over to the second period, and the penalty kill did its job, but the Yellowjackets could never find their footing after that.
 
Northland tied the game at 9:46 of the second period when Jack Craycroft got a rebound in the right circle and put a shot past Myles Hektor (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) for his first of the season.
 
It stayed tied into the third period, when the Yellowjackets showed their best life of the night. Early on, C.J. Walker (Boise, Idaho/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame) was denied from the right circle, and Tyler Ryder (Byron Center, Mich./Northstar Christian Academy) hit a post on a shot from the slot. Once again, penalties came into play, as the 'Jackets went shorthanded, nullifying the momentum built from the good start.

Northland got the eventual game-winning goal at 6:59 of the third period. Brendan Charlton intercepted a Yellowjacket pass in the slot and deked Hektor before sliding home his first of the year to make it 2-1. Then late in the period, Brock Weimer gave Northland some insurance, scoring on the odd-man rush with 3:54 to go, making the final score 3-1.
 
The Yellowjackets outshot Northland 37-24 in the game. Hektor took the loss, dropping his record to 3-7-0 on the year. He finished with 21 saves.
 
In the game the Yellowjackets gave Northland six tries on the power play, but the penalty killing unit was again stellar, killing off all six chances. The Yellowjackets went 0-for-2 on the power play.
 
The Yellowjackets and Northland will play the second game of their WIAC playoff series Saturday night. The opening face-off is set for 7:05 p.m. at Wessman Arena.