Icemen take revenge on Waseca

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- On February 17th, the Waseca Bluejays ended New Ulm's 47-game winning streak in the South Central Conference.

Thursday night, the Eagles got their revenge.

Jay Geisthardt's goal at 10:53 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie and lifted New Ulm to a 3-2 win over Waseca in Section 1A quarterfinal play.

The Eagles will now face Albert Lea at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Gustavus Adolphus College. Albert Lea was a 9-1 winner over Dodge County Thursday.

"This was a great team effort," senior defenseman Adam Macho said. "The last time we played them, they played very well (beating the Eagles 8-6). They basically shell-shocked us. But tonight we came at them and got the win."

"This is playoff hockey," coach Tom Macho said. "This was a great game -- an up and down game. We made a couple of mistakes and they took advantage of them."

Both of the Bluejay goals came off the stick of freshman Andy Meyer and were the result of New Ulm turning the puck over deep in their own zone.

"But fortunately our kids had enough gas left in our tank to take it to them in the third period," Macho said.

Tied at 1-1 going into the third period, the Eagles took a 2-1 lead just 46 seconds into the period when Waseca gave up the puck in their own zone. Geisthardt's pass on the turnover found Nate Kloos skating in on Bluejay goalie Steve Hovland. Kloos' backhand handcuffed Hovland high on the glove side for the goal.

Waseca knotted the game up less than three minutes later when Meyer picked up a loose puck in the Eagle zone and beat New Ulm goalie Tyler Zollner at the 3:23 mark for an unassisted goal.

But the Eagles would get the eventual game-winner with just under seven minutes left in the contest on Geisthardt's goal.

"It was a gorgeous pass from Tom Fischer," Geisthardt said. "He tossed it right up to me -- I got it and sniped low."

Waseca would pressure Zollner and the Eagles late in the game and finally get a chance to pull their goalie with less than a minute left before New Ulm controlled the puck for the last 30 seconds to preserve the win.

"We did a good job of breaking the puck out of the zone," Macho said."And we did that for the most part. We made regular passes -- their sixth man that was supposed to be there (with their goalie out) was not in the spot that he was supposed to be."

The Eagles had apparently taken a 1-0 lead in the first period when Nick Besemer took a pass from Jeff Schnobrich and beat Hovland. But the goal was waved off.

"They said that we had a penalty after Jeff made the pass (to Besemer)," Macho said. "When Jeff released it, that is when the penalty (to Kloos for cross-checking) happened. Everything after that was supposed to be dead."

The Eagles scored on a goal from Schnobrich to take a 1-0 lead at the 2:50 mark of period two when Waseca was on the power play.

Schnobrich skated into the Jays' zone, deked a defenseman and beat Hovland with a backhand.

"That was a beautiful goal," Macho said. "He has been snake-bitten the last few weeks. He has been working with Zollner -- he tried that move tonight and it worked."

Waseca knotted the game at 1-1 on Meyer's first goal of the game at the 12:49 mark.

"Now we are two wins away from a state tournament berth," Adam Macho said.

"We owe Albert Lea," Geisthardt said. "They beat us 2-0 here."

WASECA 0 1 1 -- 2

NEW ULM 0 1 2 -- 3

SECOND PERIOD

NU -- Jeff Schnobrich (Adam Macho) 2:59. WASECA -- Andy Meyer (unassisted) 12:49.

THIRD PERIOD

NU -- Nate Kloos (Jay Geisthardt) :46. WASECA -- Meyer (unassisted) 3:23. NU -- Jay Geisthardt (Tom Fischer) 10:53.