RIVER FALLS, Wis. (uwrfsports.com) – The UW-River Falls men's hockey team hosted Northland College at Hunt Arena on Saturday night. The Lumberjacks scored the first two goals and never trailed in the game to obtain their first win of the season.
 
THE RUNDOWN
Final Score: UWRF 2, Northland College 4
Location: Hunt Arena, River Falls, WI
Records: UW-River Falls (0-2, 0-0 WIAC), Northland Colege (1-1, 0-0 NCHA)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Falcons fell behind early with a goal coming at 8:48 in the first period. Nicholas Trefry scored with the assists going to Anthony Filoso and Michael Courvoisier. The Falcons wouldn't have a power play opportunity in the entire first period, and after the first period ended the score remained 1-0 in favor of the Lumberjacks.
• In the second period, Northland took a two goal lead just 40 seconds into the second period. Wyatt Garagan beat Alex Okicki to give the Lumberjacks a 2-0 advantage. The goal was assisted by Lucas DeBenedet and Jason Reynolds.
• River Falls would finally get on the board at 7:28 in the second period. Freshman Hunter Schneider scored his first goal as a Falcon to cut the lead to 2-1. He was assisted by Eddie Matsushima and Blake Busch.
• The Falcons had two power play opportunities in the second period at 1:05 and 16:19 but couldn't connect.
• In the third period, Northland would again take a two goal lead with a breakaway goal by Kalib Ford at 6:54 in the third period to take the 3-1 lead.
• UWRF would get a goal from Eddie Matsushima at 10:51 in the third period, his second point of the game. He was assisted by Hunter Schneider.
• The Lumberjacks would cap off their first win against UWRF with a goal at 12:31 by Jacob Jeske which was assisted by Kurt Sonne.
• Michael Lant had four shots in the third period and five shots in the game to lead the Falcons offense.
• Matsushima was second on the team with four shots, Kyle Gattelaro, Blake Busch, Ryan Doner, and Christian George would all register four shots as well.
• Okicki would save a total of 20 shots in the game with eight coming in the second period. He played 57:44 in the game and was pulled for the final 2:16 of the game.
• River Falls would go 0-3 on power plays in the game and Northland was 0-2 in the game.

 
THE OPPOSITION

• Northland obtained their first victory over the Falcons in their fourth meeting. The Lumberjacks were led by Jeske who had five shots in the game, three of them coming in the second period.
• Joshua Racek was second with four shots on goal.
• Northland started AJ Smith in goal and he played all 60 minutes and saved 40 shots in the game with 17 coming in the third period alone.
• DeBenedet was the leader in faceoffs with 11 wins in 22 opportunities. The Lumberjacks finished with 27 faceoff victories in 72 chances.

 
LOOKING AHEAD
The Falcons schedule doesn't get any easier with a road test against St. Thomas on November 4^th. UWRF will play their next three games on the road with their game against St. Thomas having a puck drop time of 7 p.m.