By John Kemmeter

With Stevens Point native and former Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) standout Tyler Krueger serving as interim head coach, the UWSP men’s hockey team has remained among the best in NCAA Division III this season.

Senior captain Willem Nong-Lambert (20) and the second-ranked University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) men’’s hockey team are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.
(UWSP Athletics- Kylie Bridenhagen photo)

Currently ranked second in this week’s D3hockey.com Poll, the Pointers returned five of their Top 10 scorers, as well as senior goaltender Max Milosek, from last year’s team that reached the NCAA Division III Tournament for the fourth year in a row.

UWSP (15-4-2, 3-0-1) won 5-2 at UW-Eau Claire (12-8, 2-2) Friday, Jan. 19, and 3-2 at home over UW-River Falls (6-12-2, 0-4) Saturday, Jan. 20, to improve to 8-1-1 over its last 10 games, and has off this weekend before it hosts UW-Stout (5-11-2, 2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2.

“It’s been a series of peaks and valleys, and we knew we were going to have that with a younger team,” said Krueger. “Through the first eight games we were at 5-3, and with a lot of the younger guys, we didn’t really know what we had.

“And then a weekend series just before (Christmas) break against (third-ranked) Adrian, sweeping them, kind of flipped the whole season and showed the whole team our true potential and set the bar for what’s to come,” he said. “It gave us a lot of confidence in what we can do as a team, and the guys came back from break with a different mindset going into the second half.”

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Senior goaltender Max Milosek is in his third year as a starter for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) men’’s hockey team.
(UWSP Athletics- Kylie Bridenhagen photo)

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) junior forward Tanner Karty leads NCAA Division III in scoring this season with 33 points.
(UWSP Athletics- Kylie Bridenhagen photo)