UWS salvages split with Stout

The University of Wisconsin-Superior men’s hockey team salvaged a split with the UW-Stout Blue Devils thanks to a 6-4 victory Saturday night at Wessman Arena.

The series started with Stout winning 4-1 Friday night in Menomonie.

Sophomore Tanner Dion scored twice and dished out an assist in Saturday night’s win.

“The boys pulled through,” Dion said. “All four lines played well and that’s what you need to win games.

“We had a lot of power-play chances Friday night and couldn’t get the puck to go in. The bounces went our way tonight.”

The first bounce to go Superior’s way came 8:09 into the game when Joey Massingham scored after attempts by Kyle Leahy and Pat Dalbec.

Stout tied it up at 13:54 when Jake Useldinger deflected a shot by Jason Cohen past UWS goaltender Drew Strandberg.

UWS regained a 2-1 lead when an offensive faceoff led to Brett Meyers scoring an unassisted goal with 41.5 seconds remaining in the opening period.

UWS scored the only two goals of the second period starting with Dion’s first goal of the night on a power play at 6:48.

Strandberg started the play with a long pass to Brett Wold, who then fed Dion, who one-timed the puck past Stout goaltender Tom Lescovich.

“I just jumped on the ice and couldn’t believe we caught them on a line change,” Dion said. “Wold did a great job of turning the 2-on-1 into a 2-on-0, then made a nice pass.”

Wold and Dion then assisted on Pat Dalbec’s fourth goal of the season. After taking a pass from Dion, Wold found Dalbec along in front of the net, where the former Superior Spartan flipped a backhander over Lescovich.

Stout rallied to tie the game with three unanswered goals in the third period. Tate Rusk scored on a power play, followed by goals by Kevin O’Donnell and Zach Viering.

Superior’s game-winning goal when Chad Blanleil put home the rebound after a shot by Brad Phenow, and Dion sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 36.6 seconds left.

Besides recording his first point of the season, Strandberg finished with 18 saves. Lescovich had 24 saves for Stout (4-3-2 overall, 1-3 NCHA)

UWS (6-2, 4-2) hosts Concordia College at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

’JACKET JOTTINGS: Dalbec has scored at least one point in all eight games for UWS. … the Yellowjackets had six minor penalties and were 1-for-3 on power plays. Stout was 1-for-6 with an extra skater and had three minor penalties. … Friday’s game was played before a crowd of 783.

UW-Stout 1-0-3—4

UW-Superior 2-2-2—6

First Period: 1. UWS, Joey Massingham 4 (Kyle Leahy, Pat Dalbec), 8:09. 2. Stout, Jake Useldinger (Jason Cohen, Scott Bell), 13:54. 3. UWS, Brett Meyers 2, 19:18.

Second Period: 4. UWS, Tanner Dion 2 (Brett Wold, Drew Strandberg), 6:48 (pp). 5. UWS, Dalbec 4 (Wold, Dion), 14:30.

Third Period: 6. Stout, Tate Rusk (Useldinger, Sam Carr), 4:41 (pp). 7. Stout, Kevin O’Donnell (Logan Maly, Scott Bell), 7:36. 8. Stout, Zach Viering (Garrett Grimstad, Micky Knox), 12:15. 9. UWS, Chad Blaniel 1 (Brad Phenow), 13:07. 10. UWS, Dion 3, 19:23 (en).

Saves: Tom Lescovich, Stout 11-6-7—24. Drew Strandberg, UWS 5-5-8—18.

Friday’s Game

Stout scored two goals in each of the first two periods en route to a 4-1 victory over UWS Friday.

Sam Carr and Garrett Grimstad gave the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead with power-play goals in the opening period, and Vierling and O’Donnell widened the gap in the second.

Jeff Forsythe ended Nick Hopper’s shutout with a power-play goal at 14:39 of the third period. Hopper finished with 32 saves.

Strandberg made 13 stops for the 14th-ranked Yellowjackets.

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