It was the end of a steak this past weekend for University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire women’s hockey.  They lost both games against Adrian College (Mich.) this weekend, which were there first losses in 2011.

The Blugolds weren’t at full strength for either game.

“We went down there not a very healthy team, with only nine forwards and four defenders,” head coach Mike Collins said.  “A couple of players were out of the line up and even the ones that were in the line up weren’t very healthy.”

With the Blugolds already down by a goal, senior captain Kristin Faber took initiative and scored their first goal in the second period of Friday’s game, with an assist from junior Toni Simones.

This tie was short lived as Adrian scored twice within the next five minutes to push the score to 3-1.

Simones would set-up Faber with another goal in the third, but that would be all for the Blugolds as they fell by 3-2.

With her two goals, Faber now has scored 19 goals this season, tying her own record from last season.  Faber currently is the leader of points, goals, power play goals, and game-winning goals this season.

She said that so far this has been a great senior season, but the team is more important than her personal triumphs though Faber wouldn’t mind achieving on a personal level as well.

“Twenty goals would be nice though, “ she said.

Despite the loss the team was able to be highly disciplined since they only had one penalty the entire game and it occurred in the third period.

The Blugolds had an even tougher time in Saturdays game as they were shut-out 3-0.

It was the first time Eau Claire had failed to score in almost a year, but the energy level stayed high.

“I have never had a game yet this season where effort wasn’t given,” Collins said. “Some nights you can play as hard as you can, but the pucks don’t go in the net.  You need to score to win.”

Even with the shutout, the Blugolds were able to shoot five more times than the Bulldogs and they prevented Adrian from scoring on all six of their power plays.

The Blugolds play at The College of St. Scholastica (Minn.) on Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m., where Faber will have her shot at twenty.