SUPERIOR, Wis. – "Okay, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it's called two in a row. And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a winning streak. It has happened before."
These were the words offered by Cleveland manager Lou Brown in the movie
Major League 2 in 1994, as he tried to get his team in the right frame of mind following a trying start to the season.
For the Yellowjacket men's hockey team, the start to the season hasn't been trying, but it has been difficult to string wins together in 2024-25. The 'Jackets didn't put two wins together until this past weekend. And following Thursday's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) match-up with Northland, the Yellowjackets have their first winning streak of the season.
The Yellowjackets scored two goals in each period and limited Northland to just 18 shots on goal on the way to a 6-0 win on a frigid Thursday night at Wessman Arena.
Six different players scored goals and 10 different players registered points for the Yellowjackets (7-3-1, 4-1-0 WIAC), who moved into first place in the WIAC with the victory. Four players –
Ikki Kogawa (Chiba, Japan/Collingwood Collegiate Institute),
Collin Pederson (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna),
Sam Brennan (Eau Claire, Wis./Memorial) and
Reed Stark (Suffern, N.Y./Douglas County West) had multi-point games for the Yellowjackets.
Jack Boschert (Florissant, Mo./Duchesne) got the start in goal for the Yellowjackets and earned the shutout, improving his record to 4-1-0 on the year.
Game Notes
- The shutout was the first of his Yellowjacket career for Boschert.
- Kogawa got the scoring started at 10:25 of the first, taking a pass from Pederson and using a quick deke in tight to make it 1-0 with his third goal of the year.
- Just 39 seconds later the duo struck again, this time with Kogawa finding Pederson in front for his first goal of the season.
- Austin Paul (Saint-Lazare, Quebec/École Secondaire du Sommet) made it a 3-0 game a 13:26 of the second period, going top shelf on a wrist shot from the right circle. For Paul, it was his first goal since he scored against Northland Nov. 26, 2022.
- Stark scored an unassisted goal at 15:08 of the second to put the 'Jackets up 4-0 after two.
- Justin Dauphinais (Val Caron, Ontario/École Secondaire Catholique Horizon) scored his fourth goal of the season at 11:44 of the third period, getting a pass from Zach Lussier (Brossard, Quebec/College Charles-Lemoyne) in the left circle and scoring and scoring high on the short side.
- The assist by Lussier was his first collegiate point.
- Evan Axell (Plymouth, Minn./Armstrong), back in the lineup after missing four games with an injury, closed out the scoring with his third goal of the year at 17:21 of the third, making the final score 6-0.
- For the game the Yellowjackets outshot Northland 49-18.
- Stark's goal was his team-leading seventh of the year, surpassing the team leaders from a year ago, who had only six.
- The Yellowjackets are now 5-1-1 on the year at home.
- Gavin Rasmussen (Cloquet, Minn./Cloquet) also picked up an assist in the game, his fifth of the year. He and Kogawa are now tied for the team lead.
- Brennan's two assists were his first collegiate points.
The Yellowjackets will close out the first half with the second game of their weekend series with the LumberJacks Saturday at the Bay Area Civic Center in Ashland. The opening faceoff is set for 7 p.m.
