BETWEEN THE PIPES

Falcons give up two three-goal leads, will play CSS in NCHA quarters

Posted on Feb 15, 2009

Tough way to end the regular season for the UW-River Falls men’s hockey team.

Four goals in the first period and a four goal lead at one point was not enough as it lost to rival UW-Stout 6-5 on Friday night.

Stout’s Joel Gaulrapp scored his second of the night and 17th of the season, short handed, with less than three minutes to go in the game, which ended up being the game winner and put the Falcons NCHA record at 4-9-1 (10-13-2).

UW-Stevens Point took care of UW-Eau Claire on Saturday, which puts the Falcons in the six seed of the NCHA Peter’s Cup and will travel to Duluth, MN to play the College of St. Scholastica, a team they have played well against this season. UWRF beat CSS on Nov. 14 for its first win of the season. The Saints got some revenge on Jan. 24 when A.J. Tucker saved a clearing attempt by Stephan Ritter. Tucker proceeded to make a pass to the front of the net where his linemate was breaking towards.

The puck deflected off a Falcon defenseman before reaching him and got past Ritter, which proved to be the game winner in a 3-2 Saints win.

Back to Stout. Its big gunners came up big in the third.

Gaulrapp got the game winner, but before he could do that, the Blue Devils needed to get the game tied.

They did so in a matter of 5 minutes, 14 seconds in the third.

Just more than 4 minutes in, Scott Motz scored his 18th followed by Gaulrapp’s first of two, this one on the power play. Danny Ryan tied the game with his fourth of the season near the midway point of the third in which the Blue Devils out shot the Falcons 12-6 and had all the momentum.

Bo Storozuk started in goal for UWRF and had 24 saves. He is playing for Stephan Ritter, who had an injury to his hamstring in the previous Falcons game.

As mentioned before, if UWRF were to play any of the top NCHA teams, CSS is the team it has played the best against. If it were not for a odd bounce, the Falcons might have been able to sweep the Saints, which was ranked No. 2 at the time.

It should make for a great series up in Duluth this weekend.

More coverage to come this week.