Coming off a 7-6 win against St. Scholastica (Minn.) Friday night, the Blugolds faced stiff competition against UW-Superior, the No. 2 ranked team in the nation.

The UW-Superior Yellowjackets held the lead from beginning to end, with a final score of 2-7.

“I think this was a game that we could have won,” freshman Mike Lucenti said. “Superior is the best team in our league right now, and they work really hard.”

In the first period the Yellowjackets scored early to take the lead. Superior had the only goal in the first period. The Yellowjackets outshot the Blugolds by a 8-18 margin in the first period of the match.

“Superior has a really tough defense,” Lucenti said. “They’re big guys and they like to hit really hard.”

Eau Claire’s goalie, sophomore Scott Sutton posted 17 saves for the Blugolds in the first period.

In the second period, Superior put four goals on the board. Superior again outshot the Blugolds 9-14.

Sutton made 10 saves in the second period to keep the Blugolds within striking distance of Superior.

The Blugolds entered the third period with a 0-5 deficit to overcome.

The Blugolds outshot Superior 13-8 and scored two goals, one which was the result of a power play.

Sophomore Justin Kaufenberg scored Eau Claire’s first goal of the game at 3 minutes, 30 seconds into the third period. Assisting on the goal was senior left wing Troy Goodweiler and freshman left wing Ted Courneya.

The ‘Gold’s second goal of the game came from sophomore right wing Joe Byrd at 5:58 into the third period. He was assisted by senior right wing Adam Sklader and freshman left wing Kuzma Kurakin.

The second and final goal for Eau Claire came as the result of a power play.

Eau Claire was charged with seven penalties for 14 minutes, and Superior took six penalties for 12 minutes.

“We put up a really good fight,” Sklader said. “They are a really great team, they do everything well.”

Superior was able to post the final two goals of the game to end it with a score of 2-7.

Friday the Blugolds took revenge on St. Scholastica (Minn.). Eau Claire was able to reverse a home ice loss to St. Scholastica just six days earlier. The Blugolds won by a 7-6 margin to avenge their 1-3 loss of last week.

“We knew we had to win this game if we wanted to stay ahead of them in the standings.” Lucenti said. “It was a big road win for us.”

All of Eau Claire’s goals were scored in the first and second periods. Eau Claire had four in the first half, and St. Scholastica answered with three.

In the second period, scoring was even with three goals posted by each team. In the third period, the Blugolds managed to keep their lead.

Goals were scored by junior Tim Murphy, freshman Ben Manny, Lucenti, Kurakin, freshman Chris Hunter and Byrd donated two.

“We’re really looking forward to winning our next four games,” Sklader said. “We match up well with Stout, and we’ve beaten River Falls already this year.