EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — UW-Eau Claire skated to a 3-3 tie with the Milwaukee School of Engineering Friday at Hobbs Ice Arena. The Blugolds held a 37-32 advantage in shots and scored once on six power-play chances.
The Blugolds generated the first sustained push of the opening period, with Philip Rondina turning away attempts from Matthew Volkman, Gavin O'Hara, Dayne Hoyord, Bronson Sabol and Logan Ganz in the first 5:17. After an Ethan Mann roughing penalty, the Blugolds put several more pucks toward the net on the power play, but Rondina stopped shots by Hoyord and Noah Ziskie before MSOE returned to full strength. The Raiders followed with extended power-play time after penalties on Henry Bartle and Danny Reis. Ryan Knight made saves on Ethan Mann, Casey Roepke, Nick Sinani and Rylan Jockims while the Blugolds also blocked multiple attempts. The Blugolds had a late power play after a Charles Fink holding penalty at 19:06, but Rondina saved Trey Gnetz's shot in the final seconds and the first period ended scoreless.
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After an early power play expired in the second period, UWEC put shots from Nick Madsen and Carter Bradley on Philip Rondina and had an Easton Inglis attempt blocked. MSOE countered through the middle of the frame, with Knight stopping several attempts before Sam Evert hit the pipe at 12:29 and Knight later turned aside a cluster of shots near the midway point. UW-Eau Claire moved ahead at 9:32 when Carson Strapon scored at even strength off assists from Ziskie and Inglis for a 1-0 lead. The Blugolds pressed again on Riley Mullen's interference penalty at 3:55, creating several power-play attempts, but the Raiders killed it and the period ended with UW-Eau Claire ahead 1-0.
Early in the third period, the Blugolds generated chances, with Hoyord hitting the pipe at 18:50 and Ziskie doing the same at 16:08 as they pressed for another goal. MSOE tied the game at 1-1 on Nick Sinani's unassisted goal at 7:30, then moved ahead 2-1 when Alex Thundercloud scored off a Nick Comfort assist at 6:35. Dryden Tomkow added another MSOE goal at 3:17 to make it 3-1, but UW-Eau Claire pulled its goalie late and went on the power play after a roughing penalty at 1:44. Ziskie scored with the extra attacker on the power play at 1:27 off assists from Hoyord and Trey Gnetz, and Bartle tied it 3-3 with an extra-attacker goal from Gnetz at :56 before matching high-sticking penalties at :31 sent the game to overtime level.
In the first overtime, the Blugolds generated the early chances, with Bartle getting an attempt at 4:40 before Eddie Shepler's tripping penalty put the Blugolds on the power play at 4:15. UW-Eau Claire kept the pressure in the MSOE zone during the advantage, with Hoyord, Ganz, Connor DeTurris, Gnetz and Bartle all involved in attempts before the penalty expired at 2:15. MSOE created a look from Rylan Jockims at 1:33, but Sam Evert's slashing penalty gave the Blugolds another power play at 1:22 after a timeout. Ziskie had two late shots blocked in the final 39 seconds, and the first overtime ended scoreless.
Michael Ryan and Kade Peterson missed the opening shootout attempts, leaving the tiebreaker scoreless through the first round. Sam Evert converted MSOE's second attempt before Max Dronen missed for UW-Eau Claire. Nick Sinani missed against Knight, but Trey Gnetz's final attempt also missed against Philip Rondina, leaving the game score tied 3-3 with MSOE recording the lone shootout conversion.
Ziskie scored a power-play goal, added an assist and blocked three shots. Gnetz recorded two assists and put five shots on goal. Knight finished with 29 saves. Hoyord added an assist, four shots and won seven of 10 faceoffs.
UW-Eau Claire moves to 0-0-1 overall, while MSOE is also 0-0-1 overall.
Up next, the Blugolds host MSOE at Hobbs Ice Arena on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. for the second matchup between the teams.
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