RIVER FALLS, Wis. — The No. 1-ranked UW-River Falls women's hockey team closed out the 2025-26 regular season on Saturday afternoon with a 6-3 win over No. 9-ranked UW-Eau Claire to clinch the WIAC regular season championship at the top seed for the WIAC O'Brien Cup Tournament.
With their sixth WIAC regular season title in a row and 12th in program history, the Falcons completed the regular season with a 24-1 overall record and 11-1 WIAC ledger. During the win, senior forward
Megan Goodreau tallied three points with a goal and two assists, passing
Callie Hoff to become the UWRF women's hockey all-time leading scorer with 198 career points. Hoff, the 2022 Laura Hurd National Player of the Year, totaled 197 points from 2017-22.
After a scoreless first period in which UWRF outshot UWEC 14-7, the Falcons broke through midway through the second. Katherine Bell opened the scoring at 7:09, finishing off the rush with assists from Kailey Niccum and Brooklyn Riley. Just under four minutes later, Sophia Hess converted on the power play off assists from Riley and Goodreau to extend the lead to 2-0.
Kylie Jones added an even-strength goal at 12:55, finishing a great pass from Addie Seleski to push the margin to three. The Blugolds responded late in the period with goals from Jana Lesch and Maddie Hulter to cut the deficit to 3-2 heading into the second intermission.
The Falcons answered quickly in the third period. MaKenna Aure scored on the power play just 38 seconds into the frame, and Goodreau followed at 2:22 with an even-strength tally to give the Falcons a 5-2 advantage.
UWEC drew within two at 8:00 of the third on a goal from Nora Carstensen, but UWRF sealed the win with an empty-net goal from Madison Kadrlik.
River Falls outshot Eau Claire 41-18 for the game and finished 2-for-4 on the power play. Jordan O'Kane earned the win in goal, stopping 15 of 18 shots to move to 20-1 on the season.
Up next, the Falcons host No. 4 seeded UW-Superior next weekend in the WIAC O'Brien Cup Tournament Semifinals. Game one is set for Friday, Feb. 27 at 7:05 p.m., followed by a 2:05 p.m. puck drop on Saturday, Feb. 28.
