Falcons Win, Rematch with Adrian Set

(From UWRF Sports Information)

Alyssa Black scored twice to help lead the Falcon women's hockey team to a 4-0 win over Lake Forest on Friday night at Hunt Arena.

With the win the Falcons advance to the NCHA O'Brien Cup Championship game and will play Adrian College on Saturday at 4:05 p.m., at Hunt Arena. 

The game will resemble last year's NCHA Championship game that Adrian won, 4-3, in overtime. That loss was the first for the Falcons during the 2011 season. 

This is the third straight shutout for the Falcons. UWRF beat UW-Eau Claire, 5-0 and 3-0, last weekend at Hunt Arena. Falcon goalie Melissa Deardorff was in goal for all three games. 

The Falcons led 1-0 after one period and 3-0 after two. 

"We played a very solid 60 minutes," said Falcon Coach Joe Cranston. "It was a great effort from every player."

Black scored the game's first goal at 8:18 of the first period. The power-play goal was her 10th of the year. She was assisted by Amanda Ryder and Katie Flanagan. The Falcons had a 12-10 advantage in shots in the period.

UWRF added two more second-period goals. Alyssa Jackson netted the first at 3:13 with Kait Mason getting the lone assists. At 16:56 Black scored her second of the game, and 11th of the year, to put the Falcons ahead, 3-0. Flanagan got the assist. Once again the Falcons had a 12-10 advantage in shots in the period. 

In the third period the Falcons scored another power play goal to put the game out of reach. Alice Cranston scored at 15:36 with an assist to Flanagan, her third of the contest. It was Cranston's 16th goal of the year. The Falcons dominated the final 20 minutes and finished with a 17-3 advantage in shots.

Deardorff stopped all 23 shots she faced and picked up the win and she is now 15-3 this year. It was her sixth shutout of the season. LFC goalies Stacey Dierking (19) and Jenna Brankin (18) stopped 37 of 41 Falcon shots.

The Falcons, ranked No. 7 in this week's USCHO.com poll, are now 22-4-2 while Lake Forest goes to 15-10-2.