EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – It's been a long time for the Yellowjacket men's hockey team. What's been a long time? Well, a few things.
After winning Friday's series opener against UW-Eau Claire on the road Friday, the Yellowjackets put themselves in position to sweep the weekend series. That's something that hadn't happened in a long time. A really long time. In fact, you have to go back to Nov. 19-20, 2010 to find the last time the Yellowjackets swept a series against the Blugolds.
All that's in the past, and Saturday things changed.
It wasn't pretty, but the Yellowjackets did what hey needed to do, scoring twice in the third period to defeat UW-Eau Claire 2-0 at the Hobbs Ice Arena.
With the win the No. 11/13-ranked Yellowjackets kept their four-point lead over UW-Stevens Point in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) standings, and opened up an eight-point lead over both UW-Eau Claire and UW-River Falls heading into the final two weeks of the season.
The Yellowjackets (16-3-1, 9-1-1 WIAC) also extended their unbeaten streak to 13 games (12-0-1).
Jan Skorpik (Brandýs nad Labem, Czechia/OA Prague) started in goal for the Yellowjackets and earned his second consecutive shutout, turning aside all 26 shots the Blugolds threw at him.
After two scoreless periods, the Yellowjackets broke the tie in the third period on
Collin Pederson's (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna) fourth goal of the season, and then salted things away late when
Carson Riddle (Ortonville, Mich./Brandon) scored into an empty net.
Game Notes
- The shutout was the fourth of the season for the Yellowjackets.
- Skorpik currently has a shutout streak of 175:06 dating back to Dec. 14.
- Justin Dauphinais (Val Caron, Ontario/École Secondaire Catholique Horizon) had the first good scoring chance of the game, getting behind the Eau Claire defense for a breakaway, but the shot to the stick side was turned aside.
- In the closing minutes of the second period, the Yellowjackets had multiple point-blank chances, but Max Gutjahr made the saves for Eau Claire.
- In the third period, while the teams were skating 4-on-4, Riddle won a faceoff back to Blake Holmes (Apple Valley, Minn./St. Thomas Academy), whose shot was redirected by Pederson past Gutjahr to put the Yellowjackets in front.
- Then with Gutjahr on the bench for an extra attacker, and Eau Claire forward collided with the linesman in the neutral zone, forcing a loose puck and Riddle pounced on it, firing it into the unguarded cage to put the game away.
- Eau Claire outshot the Yellowjackets 26-22.
- The 13-game unbeaten streak is now the fifth-longest in program history.
- The Yellowjackets are 6-3-0 in games decided by two goals or less this season.
The Yellowjackets will be back on the road next weekend for a series against UW-Stout. The series will open Friday, Feb. 7 with a 7 p.m. faceoff at the Fanetti Community Center in Menomonie.
