MENOMONIE, Wis. — The UW-River Falls men's hockey team nearly authored one of the most dramatic comebacks of the season Saturday night, rallying from a four-goal deficit before ultimately falling 5-4 to UW-Stout in the 2026 WIAC Tournament/Commissioner's Cup Championship game.
The Falcons trailed 5-1 just past the midway point of the third period before erupting for three goals in a span of just over four minutes to pull within one, but the comeback bid came up just short as the Blue Devils held on in the closing seconds at the Fanetti Community Center, earning the WIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
UWRF struck first in the opening period. At the 11:48 mark, Cole Teleki found the back of the net for his first goal of the season as his shot from the point gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
Stout responded quickly in the second period, scoring twice in the opening 75 seconds to flip the momentum. Nicolas Pigeon tied the game with a power play goal at 1:12 before Noah Tyrrell gave the Blue Devils the lead just 15 seconds later. The home team added another late in the period when Arhip Sidarovich scored at 19:06 to push the lead to 3-1 after two.
The Blue Devils extended their advantage early in the third period as Nicholas Stevens scored at 2:47, and Kullan Daikawa added an unassisted goal at 12:44 to make it 5-1.
From there, the Falcons mounted their rally. Burke Simpson sparked the comeback at 14:14, finishing a play from Tyler Waram and Ethan Lindahl to make it 5-2. Just a minute and half later, Dylan Smith scored off an assist from Luke Margenau, cutting the deficit to two.
UWRF pulled its goaltender Brennan Boynton for the extra attacker late, and the pressure paid off when Keenan Ingram scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season with 1:45 remaining, assisted by Zach Sondreal, bringing the Falcons within 5-4, but UW-Stout controlled the final faceoff and ran out the clock to secure the conference title.
Boynton made 25 saves for the Falcons, while Stout's Sebastian Monaco stopped 24 shots in the victory.
UWRF finishes its season with a 14-12-1 overall record while reaching the WIAC Tournament Championship game for the second season in a row.
