By Colin Marklowitz
Going into the third period with a 3-2 lead, the University of Wisconsin–Stout men’s hockey team looked to be on their way to the second round of the WIAC Men’s Ice Hockey Championship. But University of Wisconsin–Superior had other plans: they scored four goals in the third to come away with a 6-3 victory, beating the Blue Devils.
With this loss the Blue Devils’ (8-18, 4-8 WIAC) season is over while the Yellowjackets (9-14-3, 3-7-2 WIAC) move on to face University of Wisconsin–River Falls in the next round of the conference tournament.
After falling behind 2-0 early on, UW–Stout came alive in the second period starting with a goal from senior Kevin O’Donnell from Stoughton, Wis. at 6:59 on assists from Jordan Tredinnick, a junior from Onalaska, Wis., and Tyler Cavemberg, a freshman from East Troy, Wis.
Midway through the period, the Blue Devils got another goal as Craig Lindegard, a freshman from Hallock, Minn., found the back of the net off of an assist from senior captain Logan Maly from Rio, Wis. to tie things up at the 10:19 mark.
Three minutes later, Riley Colvard, a freshman from Centerville, Minn., scored to give UW–Stout a 3-2 advantage with just less than seven minutes to go in the period. Sophomore Jake Useldinger from East Grand Forks, Minn. and freshman Nolan Kirley from Hayward, Wis. assisted on the goal.
However, the third belonged entirely to the Yellowjackets with Michael Rey recording his second goal of the night just 1:59 into the period. Jordan Neduzak scored the next two for UW–Superior before Rey capped off the game with a goal at 18:17 to give him the hat trick on the night.
Neither team scored on the power play, as UW–Superior went 0-3 and UW–Stout went 0-2. In the net, Corey Koop, a freshman from Squamish, British Columbia had 36 saves for the Blue Devils while Dayn Belfour had 34 for the Yellowjackets.
“We had a good chance to win the game going into the third with the lead,” said Maly. “We just weren’t able to hold them at the end.”