Box Score River Falls, WI. (uwrfsports.com)- The University of Wisconsin-River Falls Falcons men's hockey team hosted the University of St. Thomas Tommies hockey team for the third game of the season for their home opener at Hunt Arena. The Falcons won over the Tommies in a fierce battle that ended in overtime, 3-2.
Senior
Tanner Milliron is this season's starter for between the pipes. Milliron stopped an amazing 16 of the 18 shots the Tommie's were able to put on net.
The goal scorers for the Falcons were
Joe Drapluk,
Cory Lushanko, and
Mitch Kontny.
The Falcons stepped onto the ice on fire. Within the first 6 minutes, there were seven shots on net. First penalty was player
Mike Fazio, at 7:01 for hooking. Intensity was kicked up by the Tommies during the power play, but the Falcons stayed on their figurative toes and met them with equal ferocity. Post power-play, the first goal scored was by the Tommies, player #26 Kortum. In the final minute, the play went from relaxed, measured pace to intense rapidly. There was one additional penalty this period, by the Tommies. Falcons had 12 shots on goal and the Tommies had 9.
The second period, the Falcons were determined to pull even, and take away the one goal advantage the Tommies held. Our only penalty was barely into the period at 17:45, player
Joe Drapluk was given 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct, our Falcons held onto their will to win. The teams met each other with even intensity around 14:00, neither willing to concede to the other. St. Thomas attempted to step it up with 10 minutes to go, but River Falls meets them with a goal at 7:09, scored by #20 Drapluk and assisted by players #29 Kontny and #5 Bergh. By the end of this period, there have been three sticks broken, and two more penalties; each two minutes, one for hooking and the other for tripping both by St. Thomas players. In the remaining 5 minutes, the Falcons crank up the intensity, determined to smack the puck to the back of the net for a lead. The period ends with 5 goals for St. Thomas and 11 for River Falls.
The third period opens with a bang. Just three minutes into the period, our Falcons slam the puck past the opposing goalie; goal was scored by player #18 Lushanko who was assisted by players #17 Williams and # 21 Dietrich. Unfortunately, roughly two minutes later, at about 6 minutes into the period, the Tommies countered, with player #10 Benson scoring a goal and tying up the score once more. The tension wafted off the ice and up into the stands, and despite their best efforts, the Falcons were unable to pull ahead before the end of the period. There were three penalties in this period each one at two minutes; the first two on St. Thomas players, one for slashing and one for roughing, the final penalty was on River Falls, again for two minutes and for roughing as well. River Falls had four times the shots at the end of this period than St. Thomas, 12 shots to their 3.
Gattelaro led the Falcons with six shots on goal and right behind him with four shots was Kontny. There were 0 goals scored on the 5 power plays and 8 penalties totaling 16 minutes. For the most part, the referees seemed comfortable to let the action play out, and only had to step in on one occasion giving only two players minor penalties for roughing in the final period.
We got a quote from Head Coach,
Steve Freeman, about his thoughts on the game: "…When the game got going, we had a lot of puck possession time. We played well enough to win, before it got into overtime. We had the puck in their end and controlled a lot of the play, but it doesn't always work like that. I was pleased, ya know, we made another stride from last weekend. We looked a little better tonight, and everyone can see, that we got a lot of speed as well as being a team that gets up and down the rink pretty well. Which we will continue to build on and keeping in mind that every play is valuable. Every one [game] counts just as much now as they do at the end of the season, as we do not have an automatic qualifier into the NCA tournament. So, I am real pleased, ya know, we have a lot of guys who work hard and play well and I think they will win a lot of hockey games as this all plays out.
The Falcons (2-0-1) are back in action on Saturday, November 7
th with a 'home field' advantage against St. Mary's University Cardinals. The puck-drop is set for 7 P.M. please come and support your fellow Falcons!
