SUPERIOR - Despite a final period goal to narrow the gap, the UW-Eau Claire men's hockey team fell 4-3 to UW-Superior this evening in Wessman Arena.

This is the third loss in a row since defeating Gustavus Adolphus on January 14th for the team, which now drops to a 1-9-1 mark on the season for Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) play. The Blugolds are 2-15-3 in all games so far. Superior, who stood tied at third in the NCHA with UW-Stout, improves to 4-3-2 in the NCHA and 11-7-1 overall.

After a first period in which the Yellowjackets scored the only goal on an evenhanded strike, the middle period saw plenty of action. Superior moved the score to 2-0 at 2:58 into the second on one of six even-sided goals of the evening. Chip Dunleavy (Sr.-Littleton, CO/Columbine) provided the first Blugold score of the night with assists coming from Brad Wiechmann (Fr.-Austin, MN) and Sean Clark (Sr.-Royal Oak, MI/Brother Rice). It came at the 5:34 mark and it was evenhanded. Brooks Lockwood (Jr.-Hudson) evened the score up less than a minute later at 6:29. Tyler Burzynski (Fr.-Eau Claire/Memorial) got in on the action with the assist on the even-sided goal. The final second period goal gave Superior the lead that it would hold for the rest of the game. It came 10:40 into the period and it too was evenhanded.

At 3:01 in the third, Superior made the score 4-2 with another even-sided strike. The third Eau Claire score came late in the third when the Blugolds pulled their goalie to give the team an extra attacker. Dunleavy scored his second goal of the evening at the 19:49 point of the third. Evan Byers (Fr.-Eagan, MN) had the assist on the goal.

Steffan Braunlich (Sr.-Los Angeles, CA/Loyola) had 32 saves on 36 Superior shots on goal. Eau Claire had 23 shots on goal.

The Yellowjackets had only two power-play opportunities while the Blugolds had five. The final Eau Claire goal was the only converted advantage of the evening.

The team heads across the border tomorrow to face St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. This NCHA contest begins at 7:00 p.m.

Eau Claire-Superior Box Score

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