The Blugolds defeated rival UW-Stout twice this weekend to become .500 in the conference.

In the two-game series with the No. 13 Blue Devils, Eau Claire won the first at Stout 4-3 and the second one at Hobbs 5-2.

The team got out to big leads in both games, but let Stout creep back in. The Blugolds outscored Stout 8-0 in the first two periods of both games, but in the third, Stout had the upper hand with five goals to one.

“We kind of lost a little bit of control … in the third period of both nights,” coach Matt Loen said. “I was a little frustrated about that, but I’m glad we got two wins.”

The scoring was evenly distributed, as sophomore Kurt Weston was the only player to have multiple goals netting three in total. Junior Andrew Wilcox led the team in assists with three, all in the first game, and five players had at least two.

Sophomore goalie Brandon Stephenson was happy with the team despite the third period.

“We found a way to win even though we weren’t playing our absolute best the entire game,” said Stephenson, who stopped 54 of 59 shots this weekend.

Eau Claire had the upper hand in shots with 68 total.

On a personal level, Stephenson didn’t think he played as well as he could have, but was happy with the result.

“I was able to (especially Friday night) … make the stops at the end of the game to pull off the win.”

He also said that he needs to work on mental aspects of the game because goalie is mostly a position that relies on one’s mental state rather than physical.

Saturday’s game featured a huge four-goal period that saw Stout lose their composure after a brief dust-up midway through the period that sent three into the penalty-box.

However, Eau Claire kept their composure and was able to take advantage.

It was a game that featured 34 penalties combined, and Stephenson was confused as to why there were so many.

“I don’t know exactly what the refs were watching the whole time,” he said. “I don’t think it was a very well officiated game both ways,” he said

His coach agreed with him that there were some bad calls in the game.

“If they’re going to call penalties late in the game to get control of the game they shouldn’t be doing that,” Loen said. “They should be doing that at the beginning of the game.”

There were only nine penalties in the first game. Overall Eau Claire had five more penalties than Stout on the weekend.

The team will now prepare for two home games against UW-Stevens Point next weekend. The Pointers have lost six straight games, so Stephenson said he knows they will be hungry for a win. Additionally, Point beat the Blugolds three times last year, so there is extra motivation.

“This is definitely the team we circled on our schedule this year,” Stephenson said. “(Point is) the team we want to definitely beat.”