RIVER FALLS, Wis. — The UW-River Falls men's hockey team defeated Northland College 7-3 Thursday evening at Hunt Arena, led by a four-goal performance by
Jonny Meiers.
Meiers' four goals is the most at UWRF since former All-American Eddie Matsushima scored four in 2018. In addition, freshman forward
Alex Atwill had five assists, a UWRF single-game record.
After a slow start in which the Falcons didn't gain their first lead until six minutes into the second period, UWRF scored six in the final 40 minutes including four unanswered to close out the game. The Falcons, now 13-10-1 overall and 7-6-1 in the WIAC, totaled the most goals scored (7) and power play goals (3) since 2022.
Northland drew a pair of Falcon penalties in the first period, taking advantage one with a power play goal to open the scoring at 13:50. With just 20 seconds left in the period, UWRF tied the game with
Jonny Meiers' first of three. However, the Lumberjacks answered just 10 seconds later to claim a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
The Falcons scored four goals in the second period compared to one from the visitors, going 2-for-2 on the power play while Meiers scored twice more to complete his first career hat-trick.
Burke Simpson gave UWRF its second lead of the night, followed by a
Dylan Smith one-timer on the power play late in the frame to give the Falcons a 5-3 advantage heading into the final 20 minutes.
Just over three minutes into the third period,
Owen Belisle scored on a centering pass from
Gibb Coady, extending the Falcons' lead to 6-3. Later in the period, Meiers scored his fourth of the game with a one-time slapshot on the power play, his team-leading 14th of the season.
UWRF finished with a 36-29 shot on goal advantage, going 3-for-4 on the power play while winning over 60 percent of faceoffs. Aside from Meiers and Atwill combining for nine points,
Dylan Smith and
Reid Lune each had two assists while
Brennan Boynton made 26 saves in net to pick up his 13th win of the season.
The Falcons wrap up their series against Northland on Saturday during Alumni & Senior Night.
