Senior goaltender Bob Gould made 44 saves, leading Wisconsin-Stevens Point past Wisconsin-River Falls 2-1 on Saturday in the NCHA Peters Cup championship third-place game.
Gould stopped 19 of 20 shots in the second period, when River Falls (18-9-2) scored its only goal, but the Pointers (18-9-2) were able to hold onto the lead.
Mike Brolsma and Nick Molski scored goals late in the first period for the Pointers, who also held onto the hope for an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament.
“There are 18 million reasons you can think of why we shouldn’t be in,” Pointers coach Joe Baldarotta said. “I can think of 18 million reasons why we should. This team has done great things.”
Jess Johnson scored River Falls’ only goal, on one of the Falcons’ 20 shots in the second period.
They weren’t able to get anything else past Gould, though.
In one three-minute period, which included a 5-on-3 Falcons power play for 49 seconds, Gould made save after save on centering passes and got some help — two shots clanked off the right post.
Things were so tilted toward River Falls midway through the period that after Gould smothered a good Rob Novak chance from the slot, Baldarotta called his timeout.
“It was like, ‘Take it easy, relax here, what are you doing?'” Baldarotta said he told his team, which was scrambling in its defensive zone at the time.
Brolsma scored his 22nd goal of the season just six seconds into a power play at 13:55, tapping a Josh Strassman centering pass in at the back door.
Molski added to the lead at 18:49, picking up a loose puck in the right circle and wristing it past Falcons goalie Jacque Vezina and underneath the crossbar.
