RIVER FALLS, Wis. – Three third-period goals powered the No. 5 UW-Stevens Point men's hockey team to at least a share of its first Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) regular season championship since 1999-2000 with a 5-3 win at No. 7/9 UW-River Falls on Friday evening at Hunt Arena.
 
Box Score
 
With the win, UW-Stevens Point (19-5-0, 9-2-0 WIAC) will be the No. 1 seed and have home-ice advantage throughout the 2015 WIAC Men's Ice Hockey Championship. This marks the first time that UWSP is the top seed in either the WIAC or the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) tournaments since 1999-2000.
 
The regular season title is the 10th in program history but the first since the Pointers won four-straight championships from 1997-2000. The win improves UWSP to 6-3-0 against ranked teams this season and 13-7-1 in the last two seasons.
 
UW-Stevens Point and UW-River Falls (18-5-1, 7-4-0 WIAC) were deadlocked at 2-2 after two periods but the Pointers scored the next three goals of the game to take command.
 
Garrett Ladd (Fenton, MI/Fenton) put UWSP ahead for the third time in the game at the 8:00 mark of the second period. The score remained 3-2 until Lawrence Cornellier (Machesney Park, IL/Harlem) and Scott Henegar (Trenton, MI/Trenton) each scored in the span of 46 seconds to give the Pointers a 5-2 lead with 5:30 to go.
 
Down by three goals, the Falcons got one goal back on Terry Leabo's power-play goal 52 seconds after Henegar's goal but that was the end of the scoring.
 
Kevin Gibson (Grosse Pointe, MI/North) got the Pointers off to a quick start, finding the back of the net from Ladd just 2:06 into the game. The Falcons hit back on a power-play goal by Christian George just under six minutes later.
 
The teams traded second period goals to set up the crucial third period. Andrew Kolb (Toledo, OH/Toledo Catholic) netted for the second game in a row less than a minute and a half into the second before UWRF's Ryan Doner tied the game for a second time.
 
Ladd and Gibson each tallied a goal and an assist in the game for UW-Stevens Point, which held a 32-23 advantage in shots in the game. Ladd's goal extends his scoring streak to five games and he has a total of eight points in that stretch.
 
Brandon Jaeger (Champlin, MN/Champlin Park) picked up the win by making 20 saves in goal for the Pointers, while Tanner Milliron was saddled with the loss despite making 27 stops.
 
UWRF was 2-for-5 on the power play in the game and held UWSP scoreless in four attempts with the extra man.
 
UW-Stevens Point closes out its regular season schedule by hosting UW-Superior on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. at K.B. Willett Arena. The Pointers need a win or a tie to clinch the WIAC regular season title outright.