Issued: January 6, 2004

WOMEN'S HOCKEY SUFFERS FIRST LOSS OF NEW YEAR

WINONA, Minn. - The UW-Eau Claire women's hockey team lost its two game winning streak and its first game during 2004, suffering a 5-2 loss to St. Mary's here tonight at the SMU Ice Arena.

The Blugolds fall to 4-8-2 for the season while the Cardinals win their seventh straight game and improve their unbeaten streak to eight games, improving their record to 7-1-1 after starting the season with a loss.

Eau Claire got the scoring started midway through the first period when Megan Oswall (Jr.-Stevens Point/SPASH) took passes from Claire Parda (So.-Waukesha) and Allison Campbell (Fr.-Plymouth, MN/Wayzata) and scored on the Cardinal goalie to give the Blugolds a 1-0 lead.

The Eau Claire advantage was short lived as St. Mary's responded with a goal of its own less than two minutes later to even the score. The Cardinals added another goal just more than two minutes after their first to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Early in the second period St. Mary's extended its lead to 3-1 before Christa Hubert (Jr.-Blaine, MN) brought the Blugolds back within one goal with an unassisted goal.

Eau Claire was unable to come any closer as the Cardinal added two unanswered goals in the third period to win the game 5-2.

The Blugolds have a 10 day layoff before their next games, a weekend series against Northern Collegiate Hockey Association rival Lake Forest on January 16 and 17. The games are set to begin at 4:00 p.m. on Friday and 5:00 p.m. on Saturday in Lake Forest.

St. Mary's 5, Eau Claire 2

Scoring
1P: EC-Megan Oswall (Claire Parda, Allison Campbell), 10:54; SMU-Melissa Mondo (Diane Amsden, Jenny Hocum), 12:38; SMU-Kate Williams (Aja Walters, Tennie McCabe), 14:26pp.
2P: SMU-Tennie McCabe (Kate Williams), 4:07; EC-Christa Hubert (unassisted), 11:21.
3P: SMU-Aja Walters (Tennie McCabe, Rebecca Jelenc), 7:55; SMU-Emily Kearns (Rachel Harrison), 10:02.

Shots: EC 4-10-3-17, SMU 9-4-8-21
Saves: EC 7-3-6-16, SMU 3-9-3-15
Power Plays: EC 0 for 3, SMU 1 for 3
Penalties: EC 3 for 6, SMU 3 for 6
Records: EC 4-8-2, SMU 7-1-1