EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – Ninth-ranked UW-Eau Claire scored four second-period goals to pull away from the third-ranked UW-Stevens Point men's hockey team, as the Pointers fell 5-2 on Friday night at Hobbs Ice Center.
 
Box Score
 
UW-Stevens Point (17-5-0, 7-2-0 WIAC) outshot UW-Eau Claire (15-5-2, 7-2-0 WIAC) by a 47-33 margin in the game but four UWEC players tallied two points and Jay Deo made 45 saves. The result means the two teams are tied atop the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) standings and both are two points ahead of UW-River Falls.
 
The Blugolds led 1-0 after a period on Adam Knochenmus' fourth goal of the year but the hosts scored three times in under four minutes early in the second period to take a 4-0 lead.
 
Kyle Sharkey (Moore, OK/Insight School of Kansas) got the Pointers on the board with his 12th goal of the season at 11:28 of the second period off assists from Garrett Ladd (Fenton, MI/Fenton) and Kevin Gibson (Grosse Pointe, MI/North). Gibson's assist extended his point streak to six games and he has nine points over that span.
 
After UW-Eau Claire extended its lead to 5-1 after two periods, Kyle Brodie (Denver, CO/Northglenn) scored the only goal of the third period. Brodie's fifth goal of the season was assisted by Eliot Grauer (Mukilteo, WA/Kamiak) and Ladd, who now has six points in the last three games.
 
The loss snapped UW-Stevens Point's five-game winning streak. Brodie's power-play goal is UWSP's 14th in the last eight games.
 
Deo made 35 of his 45 saves in the final two periods. Brandon Jaeger (Champlin, MN/Champlin Park) made 18 saves in 27:05 for the Pointers and Max Milosek (Lapeer, MI) stopped 10 shots the rest of the way.
 
The two teams play the rubber game of their three-game regular-season series on Saturday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. at Hobbs Ice Center.