A third period push would be all the University of Wisconsin Superior men’s hockey team would need to take down the University of Wisconsin River Falls in their Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference semifinal series opener on Friday evening.

The River Falls Falcons would start the scoring off five minutes into the second period with a shot right underneath the legs of Yellowjacket’s goaltender Jan Skorpik. UW-Superior would respond with a goal of their own from Collin Pederson on the power play to tie things up at ones. Reed Stark would continue the scoring streak for the Yellowjackets with 2:30 left in the second period.

Fifty seconds into the third period, Pederson would score his second goal of the game, and he would add a third goal seven minutes later to extend the Yellowjacket’s lead to 4-1 and give himself a hat-trick on the game.

UW-Superior and UW-River Falls will face off once more on Saturday, March 1st at 7PM at the Siinto S. Wessman Arena in Superior. Click here to view the Yellowjacket’s full season schedule.

* The UWS women also took on UW-River Falls on the road Friday evening but fell 8-1. They will return to play once again on March 1st at 2PM.