Men's Hockey | 1/23/2015 6:35:00 PM
Box Score The UW-River Falls Falcons fell for the first time at Hunt Arena this season in a physical battle against rival UW-Eau Claire in a 5-2 loss.
At 5:22 into the first period the Blugolds struck first when Ethan Nauman scored from the left side of the left face off circle. The Falcons took just 16 seconds to answer when
Mike Dietrich scored his first of the season scoring right in front of the net just left of goalie Tyler Green's leg assisted by
Dillon Mershon for his first point of the season.
UWEC went on the first power play of the game at 9:22 and took advantage when they scored at 9:58 when Jake Hopfner put in goal on a rebound in between the circles with the puck going high and right of
Tanner Milliron's glove.
The Falcons tied up the game at 16:41 when
Cory Lushanko scored off a beautiful assist from
Danny Hamburg. The goal was Lushanko's third with Hamburg recording his third assist of the season. With just 1:19 left UWEC had a snipe of a shot to try and take the lead but Milliron made a nice low glove save to keep it tied.
UWRF struggled to put shots on net in the first period with just three on target and six going wide while UWEC put 13 shots on goal.
Less than a minute into the second period the Blugolds broke the tie when Hopfner scored his second of the game after the Falcons defense along with Milliron got out of position shifted to the right and could not recover fast enough leaving an open net.
The Falcons went on their first power play of the game at 4:13 but the Blugolds defense did a great job of clearing the puck out of their zone time and time again and were able to kill it off. At 8:14 UWEC went on their second power play of the game and first of the period and again took advantage scoring at 9:19 when Nauman scored his second of the game again from the left face off circle.
At 13:23 the Blugolds again went on the power play but this time the Falcons were able to kill it off. With the period winding down at 18:58 UWEC went on their fourth power play of the game which UWRF would go on to kill in the third period. UWRF went into the locker room down 4-2 after two periods putting four shots on goal in the period while allowing 11 from UWEC.
Christian George had a breakaway opportunity to score a short handed goal early in the third period but had his back hand shot knocked away. Shortly after at 3:07 the Falcons went on the power play. With 18 seconds left on the power play Leabo fired in a shot that caused chaos in front of the net as Green went on his back but was able to come up with the save and UWEC killed off the penalty.
UWRF went back on the power play at 7:27 after almost scoring on a scrum in front of the net but just 13 seconds into it UWRF was called for a penalty of their own making it four on four hockey until yet another penalty was called at 8:36 putting the Falcons back on the power play. No goals came from any of the penalties.
The Falcons pulled their goalie right after a timeout late in the game and gave up an empty netter scored by Brandon Wahlin at 18:00.
The Falcons put nine shots on goal in the third period and 16 in the game while going 0-3 on the power play as the Blugolds had six shots on net in the third period with 30 in the game and went 2-4 on their power play chances. Milliron recorded 25 saves in the loss and drops to 13-3-1 on the season while Green gloved 14 saves.
The Falcons drop to 14-3-1 on the season and will face off against the Blugolds again tomorrow evening out at Hunt Arena with the drop of the puck set for 7:05 p.m.
Box Score
