UW-Stout 5, UW-Stevens Point 4 |
Photo Gallery
MENOMONIE (February 11, 2011) - UW-Stout held off UW-Stevens Point, 5-4, Friday at the Dunn County Ice Arena and went on to earn the third seed in the upcoming NCHA playoffs next weekend.
Stout (14-10-0, 9-8-0 NCHA, 7-5-0 WIAC) jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period.
Dan Cecka (Fr, Woodbury, Minn), who would go on to score the eventual game-winning goal, scored the first goal of the game at 5:14 of the first. Stout doubled the score when
Robert Carr (Sr, Roseau, Minn) scored at 14:48 of the period.
The Pointers (12-12-0, 8-9-0 NCHA, 5-6-0 WIAC) cut the lead in half when Nic Polaski scored on the power play at 1:19 of the second. Stout stretched the lead back to two goals when
Casey Kirley (Fr, Hayward) scored at 5:39.
Stevens Point put the game back to one goal game when Garret Suter scord at 6:28. But the Blue Devils hit the second intermission on a two goal when
Branden Gay (Sr, Calgary, Alberta) scored with 18 seconds left in the stanza and Stout had a 4-2 lead.
The Blue Devils took a three goal lead when Cecka scored at 4:46 of the third period, but the Pointers would not go away. Stevens Point added two more goals, one by Kyle Heck at 8:18 and then made it a one goal game when Chad Boeckman scored at 9:59.
The Pointers attacked Blue Devil goal
Tom Lescovich (So, Clifton Park, NY) in the final minutes, and especially in the final one-minute, 20-seconds of the game when Stevens Point pulled their goal in favor of an extra attacker. Lescovich was up to the challenge when he stopped three point blank shots.
Lescovich finished the game with 45 saves. His counterpart, Nick Graves, made 16 saves.
Stout will close out the regular season when they host conference champion St. Norbert College, Saturday, Feb. 12 at 4 p.m.
