Box Score
STEVENS POINT – The UW-Stevens Point men's hockey team opened up the 2010-11 season against Lawrence University but was unable to hang onto a 4-3 lead in the third period, falling to the Vikings 5-4 Saturday evening at K.B. Willett Arena.
Brad Scurfield netted the first goal of the season for the Vikings as he scored 12:24 into the first period with help from teammate Josh DeSmit to take an early 1-0 lead.
The Pointers answered back on a power play when Chad Boeckman (St. Louis, MO/Wentzville Holt) fired a shot-on-goal and Alex Handy (Carmel, IN/Park Tudor School) deflected it in, giving Boeckman the assist and evening the score at one apiece.
Lawrence re-took the lead early in the second as Paul Zuke was assisted from Huck Sanders and Corey Garrett.
Stevens Point did not wait long to answer back as Johnny Meo (Vernon Hills, IL/Ursuline) and Max Bobrow (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) helped setup Brandon Busse (Stevens Point, WI/SPASH) to once again even up the game.
As the sea-saw battle continued, Lawrence once again retook the lead, this time with 1:45 remaining in the second period to take a one goal lead into intermission.
Point was able to regroup and come out strong in the final stanza. Meo started it off with an impressive goal as he took advantage of a Pointer power play and went from the Vikings blue line and beat Evan Johnson putting the game at 3-3. Harrison Niemann (Canton, MI/Novi) and Randy Wolcott (East Haven, CT/Avon Old Farms) were credited with assists on the play.
Jake Skjodt (Carmel, IN/Cathedral) gave Point their first lead of the game as he added the Pointers third power play goal of the night assisted from Jon Madden (Brighton, MI/Howell) and Bobrow.
The Pointers lost their lead shortly after when John Orrico beat Wolcott to even the game at fours.
Brad Scurfield turned around the Vikings disadvantage as he was able to break away and ricochet a goal off Wolcott for the short-handed game winning goal.
Bobrow led the Pointers with two assists on the day and Orrico led the Vikings with two goals of his own. Wilcott saved 16 for the Pointers and Johnson saved 26.
UW-Stevens Point (0-1) will return to action Friday, October 29th when they travel to St. Scholastica. The puck is set to drop at 7:05 p.m.
