RIVER FALLS, Wis. – For the second straight season, the UW-Stevens Point women's hockey team was defeated by UW-River Falls in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship game, falling to the Falcons 6-1 on Saturday afternoon at Hunt Arena.
Box ScoreAlice Cranston and Carly Moran each scored twice and Chloe Kinsel set up three goals for UW-River Falls (24-3-1). The Falcons claimed the O'Brien Cup for the second season in a row, after defeating UW-Stevens Point (18-8-2) 5-0 in last season's title game.
UW-River Falls outshot UW-Stevens Point 22-3 in the first period. However, WIAC Player of the Year
Janna Beilke-Skoug (Madison, WI/East) turned aside 21 of the 22 shots to leave the hosts leading just 1-0 after the first period, as Cranston's power-play goal at 16:10 was the only scoring.
The Falcons doubled their lead with another power-play goal, this time by Sam Greeley, 2:56 into the second period before Brianna Breiland made it 3-0 midway through the second.
Trailing 3-0, UW-Stevens Point got one goal back on a
Kat Nejedlo (Fond du Lac, WI/Fond du Lac) goal at 11:31 of the third period. The junior's goal was her 10th of the season and her 28th point, second-most on the team.
Nicole Schaub (Vadnais Heights, MN/White Bear Lake) recorded her 11th assist of the season on the goal.
Moran scored her first goal of the afternoon 50 seconds after Nejedlo's goal and UW-River Falls added two empty-net goals in the final three minutes.
Beilke-Skoug made 34 saves in the game and set the UW-Stevens Point single-season record for saves (734) in the process. It was the senior's 10th 30-plus save performance of the season.
The final shot tally was 40-14 in favor of the Falcons. Angie Hall picked up the win in net for UW-River Falls, making 13 saves in the game.
UWRF converted on both of its power-play chances in the game, while UWSP was 0-for-2.
UW-Stevens Point will await the NCAA Tournament selection show on Monday, March 9 to find out if they are in the field. The show airs
live at 10 a.m. EST.
