UWRF women's hockey plays for WIAC playoff title

The UW-River Falls women's hockey team will play in the WIAC playoffs championship game on Saturday, March 7.

The Falcons host UW-Stevens Point at 2:05 p.m. at Hunt Arena. The Falcons enter the championship game with a 23-3-1 record and are 14-2 at Hunt Arena. UWRF has won nine straight games and are unbeaten in its last 15 contests.

Junior forward Chloe Kinsel has set school single-season records for goals (21) and points (46). Kinsel is fourth in the nation in points per game, fifth in assists per game and eighth in goals per game. Two other Falcons are over the 30 point mark: senior forward Alice Cranston (39 points), and sophomore forward Dani Sibley (35 points). Cranston has six game-winning goals and is tied for first in the nation.

Sophomore defenseman Paige Johnson (22 points) is fifth in the nation in points by defensemen while freshman forward Carly Moran (29 points) is fourth in the nation in rookie points per game.

Freshman goaltender Angie Hall has a 19-3-1 record with a 1.74 goals against average and a .899 saves percentage. She also has three shutouts.

UWRF averages 4.4 goals a game and allows just 1.7. UWRF is third in the nation in scoring and 10th in goals against. The Falcons are seventh in power play percentage (22.9 percent).

The Falcons advanced to the championship game with a two-games-to-none series win over UW-Eau Claire last weekend at Hunt Arena. The Falcons won on Friday, 6-1, and came back to take a 5-1 win on Saturday.

The Falcons and Stevens Point have met four times this year and UWRF has a 2-1-1 lead in the season series. UWRF is ranked sixth in the nation and UWSP is seventh. On Nov. 14-15, 2014, in Stevens Point, the Falcons won, 3-2, on Friday, and Stevens Point won, 3-2, on Saturday.

On Jan. 23-24, in River Falls, the Falcons again won the first game, 3-2, and the two teams battled to a 2-2 overtime tie in the second contest. Stevens Point holds a slight 23-22-6 lead in the all-time series.