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Issued: February 21, 2008

WOMEN’S HOCKEY WILL WRAP UP REGULAR SEASON IN RIVER FALLS

EAU CLAIRE, Wis.- The UW-Eau Claire women’s hockey team will travel down I-94 to UW-River Falls for the final weekend series of the regular season.

Trailing the Falcons by five points in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) standings, the Blugolds will finish the season in fourth place regardless of the outcome of this weekend’s games. The Blugolds enter the final weekend of the season with a record of 11-12-0 overall and 8-8-0 in NCHA play. The host Falcons will take the ice Saturday with an overall record of 14-7-2 and 10-5-1 in NCHA play.

With a sweep of the Falcons, the Blugolds can secure the first winning season in NCHA play in program history. However, this will not prove to be an easy task as the Blugolds are 3-19-3 all-time against the Falcons including a 1-0 defeat which took place earlier this season. A series sweep would also put the Blugolds’ overall record at 13-12-0 which would put this team in good position to be the second team in program history to finish the season with an overall winning record.

In order to become the second winning team in program history, the Blugolds will probably need Kristin Faber (Fr.-Austin, MN) to make her presence felt by the Falcons. Faber is the Blugolds leading scorer with 18 points. Her 18 points come on 11 goals and seven assists. In addition to Faber, the Blugolds offensive attack consist of five other players who have double digit point totals entering the final weekend of the regular season. Christine Dickinson (Fr.-Layton, UT/Shattuck St. Mary's), Margaret Campbell (Jr.-Plymouth, MN/Wayzata), and Beth Dittrich (So.-Roseville, MN) are three of those five Blugolds who are contributing to the Blugolds offensive attack this season. They all have 13 points and Dittrich leads the team in assist with nine helpers.

Lately, the Blugolds have turned to Lindsay Savat (Fr.-Apple Valley, MN/Thomas Jefferson) to help the team between the pipes. Savat has started the team’s last four games and has posted a record of 1-3-0 during the stretch. However, two of those losses came at the hands of the eighth ranked team in the nation UW-Superior. Savat has posted an overall record of 5-5-0 this season along with a goals against average of 2.3 and a save percentage of .894. If the Blugolds don’t go with Savat they will most likely turn to Danika Porter (Fr.-Rosemount, MN/South St. Paul) who is 6-6-0 on the season.

River Falls enters the final weekend of play with third place locked up in the NCHA standings and right on the outside of the nations top ten poll according to US College Hockey Online. The Falcons are currently riding the momentum of a five game unbeaten streak and a four game winning streak. The Falcons are a team that is capable of scoring a lot of goals as their roster consists of ten players who have at least ten points on the season. Their leading scorer is Ashly Berner with 22 points. Berner’s 22 points come off of 11 goals and 11 assists. Jamie Briski and Stefanie Schmitz help Brerner lead the Flacons scoring attack with 20 points apiece.

In net, the Falcons have rode Cassi Campbell all season. Campbell has made an appearance in every game for the Falcons this year and has posted a record of 13-7-2 while allowing 1.76 goals a game.

Saturday’s game is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. at Hunt Arena in River Falls. The two teams will wrap up the series and the regular season at 2:00 p.m. Sunday.

- TT -

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