Issued: February 21, 2004

WOMEN TOP LAKE FOREST IN OVERTIME, EXTEND WIN RECORD

EAU CLAIRE - Christa Hubert's (Jr.-Blaine, MN) goal with 29 seconds remaining in overtime gave the UW-Eau Claire women's hockey team a 2-1 victory over Lake Forest and extended the Blugold single season win record to 10 here tonight at Hobbs Ice Arena.

The game was the regular season finale for Eau Claire as the Blugolds will head to UW-Superior next weekend for the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs. Eau Claire finishes with an overall record of 10-13-2 and a mark of 5-11-0 in the NCHA while Lake Forest finishes its season with a record of 2-22-1 overall and 0-16-0. The Foresters will not advance to the NCHA playoffs.

Lake Forest tallied the first goal of the game when Erin McCareth shot one past Blugold goalie Sara Steinhoff (So.-West St. Paul, MN/Henry Sibley) to give the Foresters a 1-0 lead. The goal came with 7:32 remaining in the first period.

The Blugolds responded 1:04 later when Laura Suppes (Fr.-Falcon Heights, MN) took a pass from Karen Hebert (Fr.-Lakeville, MN/Academy of the Holy Angels) and tallied her eighth goal of the season to tie for the team lead and knot the game at one.

Both goalies and defenses held the opposing offense scoreless for the remainder of regulation. The Blugolds pounded Forester goalie Theresa Taylor with 41 shots in the first three periods but were unable to find the back of the net despite several great opportunities.

Eau Claire found more opportunities in the five-minute overtime period, tallying four shots on goal and finally getting a shot past Taylor with just 29 seconds remaining in the game. Hebert fired a puck off of Taylor's pad and Hubert was there to put the rebound in the net for the game-winner.

Steinhoff played the entire game in goal for the Blugolds, making 27 saves and holding the Foresters without a goal after the 7:32 mark of the first period.

Eau Claire will travel to Superior on Friday for the beginning of the NCHA playoffs.

Eau Claire-Lake Forest Box