For the tenth consecutive year, UW-Eau Claire women’s hockey have punched their ticket into the O’Brien Cup. The cup represents the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) hockey championship.

To clinch the cup, the Blugolds hosted the UW-Stevens Point Pointers on Feb. 27-28 at Hobbs Ice Arena. The Blugolds entered the series coming off a 3-6 loss to No. 1-ranked UW-River Falls to end the regular season.

With the regular season ending in a loss for the Blugolds, Head Coach Jarad Vroman said Friday night’s game was all about facing Stevens Point.

“The regular season was the regular season, you close the book on that,” Vroman said. “You try to learn from the good [and] from the bad.”

During the regular season, the Blugolds swept the 3-match season series outscoring the Pointers 14-2.

“That’s flushed, and we started 0-0 with them going into tonight’s game,” third-year forward Madisyn Krumholz said. “They come wanting to play because they don’t want to send their seniors home.”

Through the first half of the first period of Friday’s match, the Blugolds put up eight shots on the goal but weren’t able to find the back of the net. 

After a face-off win by the Pointers with five seconds left in the period, the Blugolds regained possession and beat the buzzer with a goal from third-year forward Kenzie Keller with just one-tenth of a second left.

“You like the period, but to go in 1-0 instead of 0-0 makes a huge difference,” Vroman said. “I think it was super important just for that momentum swing and for us to kind of get our legs back going and really push the pace in the second [period].”

The goal from Keller was the Blugolds’ 27th first-period score of the season. In the second period, Krumholz found the back of the net at 4:19 to give the Blugolds a 2-0 lead.

That would be the only score from either side in the period, as the Blugolds held on to their lead going into the third and final period.

Krumholz said it was nice to get a 1-0 lead in the second period like the first period.

At 8:52 in the third-period, an even strength goal from third-year forward Ava Johansson extended the Blugolds lead to three. The lead for the Blugolds only got bigger with an empty net goal at 15:44, which ended up being the final goal of the match.

The Blugolds’ 4-0 victory was fueled by their 52 shots versus the Pointers’ 16. The Pointers had six minutes of power play time and put up three shots, but weren’t able to capitalize for a goal.

First-year goalie Kambelle Freije secured her seventh clean sheet on the season on Friday night alongside making 16 saves.

“It’s nice having experience, but I think our freshmen definitely have stepped up,” Krumholz said. “They are playing a very big role in this.”

Vroman said early in the game he felt the Blugolds were taking shots from the perimeter but that scoring chances and goals come from inside the dots.

“Attacking a little bit more inside and trying to get on our toes to push that momentum I think makes kind of a big difference,” Vroman said.

Needing a second win to head to the O’Brien Cup, the Blugolds, just as Friday night, struck first in the opening period. First-year forward Nora Carstensen scored her first goal of the day at 7:35. 

At the end of the first period, the Blugolds held a 1-0 lead over the Pointers. In the second period, third-year forward Maddie Hulter erupted for back-to-back goals at 2:26 and 11:38 respectively. 

To cap off the second-period, the Blugolds received a goal from fourth-year forward Rachel Mirwald at 14:15. The goal was assisted by second-year forward Jana Lesch.

The final goal of the day came from Carstensen at 8:06 for her second goal of the match. Saturday was Carstensen’s first multi-goal match of her collegiate career. With the 5-0 victory, the Blugolds have 24 straight wins over the Pointers.

The Blugolds face top-ranked UW-River Falls Falcons on Saturday, March. 7 at Hunt Arena in River Falls, WI. The Falcons lone loss on the season came at the hands of the Blugolds, when the Blugolds completed the 3-0 shutout on Saturday, Nov. 22.

The Blugolds will look to claim their first O’Brien Cup since 2019 and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Benes can be reached at [email protected].