MENOMONIE (December 1, 2017) - UW-Superior ended UW-Stout's season last year, but the Blue Devils came out victorious Friday at the Fanetti Community Center. In front of 517 loud fans, the Blue Devils won a 2-1 battle against WIAC opponent UW-Superior to pick up their second consecutive conference win to open the WIAC season.
The Blue Devils needed a third period rally to overcome a one goal deficit to beat the Yellowjackets (3-7-1, 0-1-0 WIAC). The Blue Devils (5-6-1, 2-0-0) scored two goals in the first six minutes of the third period to come from behind for the win.
During a scoreless first period, both teams saw themselves figuring each other out with a lot of heavy hits and shots. Stout outshot Superior 11-9 in the first period.
It didn't take long for the Yellowjackets to come out in the second period to score. Superior's Connor Hamonic scored his first goal of the season two minutes in the second period. The Yellowjackets would continue to put pressure UW-Stout as they outshot the Blue Devils 12-4 in the second period alone.
Down 1-0, Stout came out with much more energy in the third period. After only four shots in the secondperiod, a fired up Blue Devil offense had four shots in the first minute of the third period. Stout's
Konnar Dechaine scored his second goal of the season only two minutes into the period to tie the score at 1 apiece.
Alex Toscano and
Jordan Stejskal added passes on the play to pick up the assists.
With the momentum swinging the Blue Devils' way, Stout found themselves on a power play at the 4:28 mark of the third period. With time ticking down on the power play and nice passing from
Connor Chambers and
Evan Butcher,
Lucas Carroll found the back of the net for the power play goal to give the Blue Devils a 2-1 lead. The goal was Carroll's third goal of the season and his first power play goal of the season.
As the Blue Devils led 2-1, Stout would find themselves short-handed with seven minutes left to go in the contest. With a few blocked shots and nice saves by
Tommi Ahlgren, the Blue Devils fought their way out of a jam.
Superior would pulled goalie Cole Skiner with just over a minute left in the game. With some good scoring opportunities, Ahlgren and the Blue Devils defense held on for another 30 seconds, as Stout called their timeout. With a face-off in the Blue Devils' zone, the puck was controlled by Superior. With 18 seconds left,
Alex Toscano sent a puck nearly the length of the ice and came within inches of sealing the game. With the icing call, Stout was in their own zone once again. With 10 seconds left, a Yellowjacket defensemen fired a slapshot and
Alex Toscano laid his body on the line to block the shot.-Stout prevailed and won 2-1 in their second WIAC contest in just two days.
Ahlgren faced a lot of tough shots, but would only let up one goal as he would get the win in net. Ahlgren faced 33 shots and had 32 saves in the game. Yellowjackets' Cole Skinner saved 21 shots and took the loss.
The win gave the Blue Devils a lead in the WIAC as they improve to 2-0-0 in the conference. WIth a little time off, the Blue Devils have a pair of non-conference home games against Concordia University (Wis.) on Friday, Dec. 15 at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday, Dec.16 at 4:05 p.m.
