SUPERIOR, Wis. – The Yellowjacket men's hockey team played host to UW-Eau Claire in the final stretch of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) regular season. Following a tightly contested contest, the 'Jackets and Blugolds skated to a 2-2 tie and went into overtime. Eventually moving to a shootout, UWEC struck gold in the eighth round to earn the extra point on Friday.
Game Notes
- The Blugolds made it 1-0 at the 3:16 mark after Dayne Hoyord took a pass from Trenten Heyde and lit the lamp early.
- Superior responded at 14:59 with Andrew Larson's (Duluth, Minn./Denfeld) third goal of the season, sending one short side just past the pad of Blugold goaltender Max Gutjahr. Garnering assists were Logan Nickerson (East Haddam, Conn./West Haven) and Daniel Rozsival (Chicago, Ill./North Shore Country Day).
- In the middle frame, UW-Eau Claire went ahead 2-1. Following a shot from Hoyord that Yellowjacket goaltender Jan Skorpik (Brandýs nad Labem, Czechia/OA Prague) saved, Max Dronen took the rebound and buried it.
- UWS leveled the scoring once again, this time off the shot of Dusty Bergstrom (Pine City, Minn./Pine City), his first of the year. Receiving the helpers were Jordan Gibbs (Redwood Falls, Minn./Jefferson) and Carson Riddle (Ortonville, Mich./Brandon).
- A late Yellowjacket penalty gave the Blugolds the upper hand, but the PK was strong and forced an overtime session.
- UW-Eau Claire's Leo Bacallao committed a holding penalty at 2:13, but the Yellowjackets couldn't strike the golden goal, sending the game to a shootout.
- Trey Gnetz and Ikki Kogawa (Chiba, Japan/Collingwood Collegiate Institute) each scored in the first round of the shootout, and from there both goaltenders made saves until the eighth round when Bacallao scored his eventual shootout winner.
- Riddle led with three shots, while Bergstrom blocked three shots from the opposition.
Both teams are back at it Saturday to finish their regular season series. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m. inside Wessman Arena.
