MENOMONIE – Facing an early two goal deficit and trailing by as many as three goals in the third period, UW-Stevens Point mounted a late-game comeback but came up just short, falling to the Blue Devils of UW-Stout 5-4 Friday evening at Dunn County Ice Arena. 

The Pointers can still secure the No. 4 seed and host a quarterfinal playoff series with a win or tie on Saturday against UW-River Falls or an Eau Claire loss at UW-Superior. 

UW-Stevens Point fell behind 2-0 after the first period on Friday but Nick Polaski's power play goal just 1:19 into the second put the Pointers on the board.

Another Stout goal at the 5:39 mark put the Blue Devils up by two goals again but Garrett Suter (Madison/Oregon) tallied his sixth goal of the season to again cut the deficit to just one, 3-2. 

Stout tallied two more goals, one with 18 seconds remaining in the second and another 4:46 into the third to push their lead to three goals, 5-2. 

Kyle Heck (Plover, WI/SPASH) netted his fifth goal of the season at the 8:18 mark of the third and Chad Boeckman (St. Louis, MO/Wentzville Holt) added tallied his sixth just over a minute later to cut the deficit back to one but Stout put the clamps on the Pointer offense the rest of the way, securing the victory. 

Nick Graves (Hewitt, WI/Ashwaubenon) tallied 16 saves on the evening while his counterpart Tom Lescovich stopped 45 of the Pointers 49 shots on net to secure the victory. 

UW-Stevens Point (12-12-0, 8-9-0) returns to the ice Saturday with UW-River Falls. Game time in River Falls is set for 7:05 p.m.