Women's Hockey | 2/27/2015 6:42:00 PM

Box Score

The UW-River Falls Falcons won game one of the WIAC women's hockey playoff semifinals, 6-1, over the UW-Eau Claire Blugolds with three goals in the the first and second periods. 

"We played very good first and second periods but very poor and undisciplined in the third period," said Falcon Coach Joe Cranston.

The line of Dani Buehrer, Sam Greeley, Carly Moran, Dani Sibley and Karleigh Wolkerstorfer were on the ice for four of the six UWRF goals. 

The Falcons only took 38 seconds to score first when Karleigh Wolkerstorfer stayed after the puck and put it in for the early goal beating UWEC goalie Paige Turner high on her stick side. The goal was number 12 this season for Wolkerstorfer with Dani Sibley recording her 18th assist and Dani Buehrer picking up her fifth assist on the goal. 

UWRF went on the first power play of the game at 8:45 and scored just two seconds into it when Paige Johnson sniped in a shot top shelf right out of the faceoff. Wolkerstorfer picked up the assist on the play for her 12th of the season while the goal gave Johnson her seventh. 

The Blugolds went on their first power play of the game at 10:40. With 45 seconds still left on the first power play another UWRF penalty gave UWEC a two skater advantage. The Falcons killed both penalties while almost scoring a short handed goal on a couple different chances. Angie Hall made a nice kick save during the penalty kill to keep UWEC off the board. 

With just 1:12 left on the clock in the first period Sibley notched her first goal of the game assisted by Sam Greeley who notched her ninth assist of the year. 

UWRF put 15 shots on goal in the period while Hall saved all six UWEC shots. 

Again the Falcons wasted no time scoring when Alice Cranston poked in a goal for her 17th assisted by Brianna Brieland and Chloe Kinsel. Brieland has 15 assists this season and Kinsel has a team high 23. At 3:20 Sibley scored again as she was falling down and beat Turner low and right. Carly Moran and Wolkerstorfer each recorded assists on the goal. Moran has 16 assists and Wolkerstorfer 13 on the season. 

UWEC went on the first power play of the second period at 8:44 but could not make anything of the opportunity. UWRF went on the power play at 12:50 but had it killed off. Again at 15:20 the Falcons went back on the power play but struggled to get many shots on goal and again had it killed off. 

With just 52 seconds left in the second period Buehrer corralled the puck in the slot on a rebound and beat Turner for her third goal of the season. The Blugolds went on the power play with 12 seconds left but eventually had it killed off. 

The Falcons finished the period with 16 shots while Hall knocked away three Blugold shots. 

UWEC went on the power play at 2:42 but the Falcons were able to kill it off. At 5:03 the Blugolds went on the power play for the fifth time and for the fifth time the Falcons killed it off. For the third time in the period at 9:59 UWEC went on the power play and this time took advantage scoring at 11:28 to avoid the shutout. With 3:03 left in the game the Blugolds went on the power play yet again but UWRF killed it off. 

UWRF finished with four shots in the third period and 35 in the game while going 1-3 on the power play. UWEC had three shots in the third period and 12 in the game while going 1-7 on the power play. Hall finished with 11 saves and improves to 18-3-1 on the season. 

The two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon out at Hunt Arena with the drop of the puck set for 2:05 p.m. All the Falcons need to do is tie tomorrow and they will head to the championship game. 

Box Score