RELEASED:  Saturday, February 16, 2008

Falcons Claim Fifth Straight Hockey Crown

River Falls, Wis.--University of Wisconsin-River Falls won its fifth straight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) men’s ice hockey championship with a 5-3 victory over rival UW-Stout on Feb. 15 at Hunt Arena.

The league title is the 14th in program history, while the string of five straight trophies is the second longest in WIAC history behind their own streak of seven consecutive crowns from 1982-1988.

In the victory over the No. 11-ranked Blue Devils, the 10th ranked Falcons got on the scoreboard just 3:15 into the game when Tyler Czuba tapped in a rebound on a power play.

Under four minutes later, UW-River Falls’ Dustin Norman stole the puck from a Blue Devil defenseman. As he skated in, he attempted to dish the puck across to Pat Borgestad, but the puck tipped off a UW-Stout player and found the back of the net.

The Falcons struck quickly again when TJ Dahl wristed the puck past Devil goaltender Mike Stone off a faceoff win from Czuba.  

UW-Stout recorded back-to-back power-play goals from Jack Wolgemuth after falling behind 4-0 in the second period, but the Falcons’ Matt Szupura countered with a goal early in the third stanza to put the game out of reach.

Stephen Ritter make 39 saves on 42 shots for UW-River Falls, while Mike Stone stopped 23 shots for the Blue Devils.

UW-River Falls finished the regular season with a 16-6-3 mark overall and 5-2-1 in WIAC contests, while the Blue Devils were 15-7-3 and 3-4-1.

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