Men's Hockey | 2/20/2015 6:52:00 PM
Box Score The UW-River Falls fell 5-3 on their last regular season home game of the season against the UW-Stevens Point Pointers in a game with WIAC regular season champion implications.
After a tight back and forth first two periods, the Pointers pulled away in the third period to seal the victory. Both teams will have one more regular season game but the win puts UWSP in great position to take the regular season WIAC title.
The first goal of the game came from Kevin Gibson in the slot at 2:06 to put the Pointers up early. UWRF saw the games first power play at 7:31 and took advantage of it. During the power play
Terry Leabo made a great play to keep the puck in the zone and shot a pass over to
Blake Huppert who found
Christian George right in front of the goalie and scored the game tying goal for his ninth goal of the season. The assist was the ninth of the season for Huppert and number 12 on the year for Leabo.
UWSP went on their first power play of the game at 9:55 but UWRF killed it off with strong defense and a great leg save from
Tanner Milliron with just three seconds left on the power play to keep the game tied. The rest of the period would fly by with neither team scoring another goal or committing another penalty.
UWRF ripped eight shots on net in the period while Milliron knocked away eight of the nine Pointer shots on goal.
Again the Pointers wasted no time scoring to start the second period when Andrew Kolb beat Millirion five hole at 1:24 to take the 2-1 lead. Soon after at 2:17 UWSP went on their second power play of the game but again UWRF killed it off.
At 7:44 the Falcons went back on the power play but the Pointers penalty kill did a great job of clearing the puck and killed it off. UWRF was able to tie the game at 14:11 when
Ryan Doner stayed after the puck when Pointer goalie Brandon Jaeger could not quite control it and lit the lamp. The goal was number nine of the season for Doner while
Kyle Gattelaro picked up his 10th assist of the season on the play and
Mike Fazio recorded his sixth.
Shortly after the goal UWSP went back on the power play but for the third time UWRF killed it with Milliron again making an unreal save at with the seconds winding down on the opportunity as he went flying on his stomach to knock the puck away. With just 2:39 left in the period the Falcons went on the power play for their third chance of the game but had it killed off.
The two teams would head into the locker locked at a 2-2 tie. Both teams finished the period with nine shots on goal.
After a slow start to the third period for both teams the Falcons went on the power play at 5:03 but UWSP was able to kill off yet another penalty. At 8:00 of the third Garret Ladd beat Milliron on his high glove side when he tipped a shot taken from the left faceoff circle to give the Pointers a 3-2 lead.
At 10:50 UWRF committed a penalty to give UWSP a power play opportunity but were able to kill it off to stay within one goal. UWSP continued to keep knocking at the door until again scoring at 13:44 when Lawrence Cornellier notched a goal to give the Pointers a two goal lead. Just seconds later UWSP continued to pour it on when Scott Henegar scored the goal.
UWRF was not ready to go away just yet when they went on the power play at 15:14 and found the back of the net at 15:22 when Leabo ripped a shot from the right faceoff circle assisted by Huppert and Gattelaro. Leabo now has four goals on the season while Huppert has 10 assists and Gattelaro has 11 on the year. UWRF pulled Milliron and had some looks at net but were never able to get within reach.
The Falcons had six shots in the third period and finished with 23 in the game while going 2-5 on the power play. The Pointers had 14 in the period with 32 overall and went 0-4 on the power play. Milliron finished with 27 saves in the game.
UWRF drops to 18-5-1 on the season and 7-4 in the WIAC. They will play their regular season finale tomorrow evening at UW-Eau Claire with the drop of the puck set for 7:05 p.m.
Box Score
