STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Ellie Punnett (Hailey, ID/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame) tallied two goals and three assists and Katherine Nejedlo chipped in four assists as the UW-Stevens Point women's hockey team defeated UW-Superior 7-1 in the opening game of the 2016 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) O'Brien Cup semifinals (presented by Culvers).

Box Score

The two teams will meet in game two of the playoff series Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Ice Hawks arena. The Pointers need a win or tie to secure the series victory and advance to the O'Brien Cup Finals versus either River Falls or Stout. A Superior victory would force a decisive mini-game period at the conclusion of Saturday's contest to determine who advances.

Cara Lemirande (Janesville, WI/Craig) gave the Pointers the lead at the 7:06 mark of the first and Emily Lester (Eau Claire, WI/Memorial) added another at the 10:48 mark, both on the power play, to give the Pointers  a 2-0 advantage.

The Yellowjackets tipped in a goal with 2:11 remaining in the opening period to cut the UWSP advantage in half, 2-1, at the first intermission.

With just :23 seconds left in the second period, Logan Harper (Gurnee, IL/Warren Township) poked in the puck to give the Pointers the 3-1 edge after two.

In the third, the Pointers opened the flood gates scoring four goals in a 10 minute span of the period with two goals from Punnett and one each from Betsy Anderson (Farmington, MN/Farmington) and Lester, coasting to the six-goal victory.

Sydney Conley (South St. Paul, MN/South St. Paul) picked up the victory in goal for the Pointers, stopping 23 of 24 Superior shots on target. UW-Superior's Sky Brown took the loss, surrendering five goals before being pulled in the third for Kim Kobar.