Albert Lea ousts Eagles

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

ST. PETER -- Too many mistakes, not enough time.

The New Ulm Eagles fell behind by three goals, then their rally fell short as the Albert Lea Tigers held off New Ulm 5-4 Tuesday night in a boys Section 1-1A semifinal hockey game at Lund Center.

"We just made too many mistakes early," New Ulm coach Tom Macho said. "That was our whole thing. Our coverage broke down in that first period twice where we didn't have a man in front of the net and they had time to shoot. The second and third periods we did everything but score. We just couldn't put in."

New Ulm ends its season at 18-6. Albert Lea will face the winner of the Rochester Lourdes-Northfield game later Tuesday night in the Section 1-1A title game Saturday at Lund Center.

New Ulm did put it in, just not enough times before time ran out on them. The Eagles fell behind 4-1 and then 5-2, before rallying in the latter stages of the second period and in the third period, but they couldn't climb all the way out of the hole they had dug for themselves.

New Ulm got to within a goal at 5-4 with 1:19 in the game when Jamie Hoffman put a rebound past Albert Lea goalie Jason Solberg, but the Tigers killed off the remaining time.

"We just couldn't catch up," Macho said.

It was a weird way to lose for the Eagles. If either team had control of the game, it was New Ulm. The Eagles outshot the Tigers 28-26 for the game, and teed off on Solberg in the final two periods with 21 shots to Albert Lea's 14.

But it wasn't enough to make up for a first period where the Tigers took advantage of defensive lapses by the Eagles created largely by New Ulm's determination to punish the Tigers physically.

New Ulm got the first goal -- David Sellner tallied at the 3:00 mark when he was left alone in the slot and took a centering pass from Brandon Rolloff, wristing a shot over the shoulder of Solberg. Al Wurtzberger got the second assist as New Ulm went up 1-0 and looked to be in control.

But the Tigers ran off four unanswered goals. Albert Lea scored three times to close out the first period with a 3-1 advantage and then upped the lead to 4-1 with only 36 seconds gone in the second period on a Levi Hendrickson rebound.

"Their center would just start at the blue line, then they would drop a one-timer to him," Gary Wurtzberger said. "That second goal, I should have had. I tried covering it before it stopped. That was one I should've had."

Gary Wurtzberger added maybe the Eagles were looking past the Tigers.

"I think some of us were kind of looking ahead to playing Northfield for the second time, or playing Lourdes again in a rematch," he said.

Albert Lea 3 2 0--5

New Ulm 1 2 1--4

First period--1, New Ulm, Sellner (Rolloff, A.Wurtzberger), 3:00. 2, Albert Lea, Kruse (Jacobson), 4:09. 3, Albert Lea, Schulte (Jacobson, Tuchowski), 11:07. 4, Albert Lea, Wangen (Hendrickson, Schulte), 11:21. Penalties--None.

Second period--5, Albert Lea, Hendrickson (Schulte), :36. 6, New Ulm, Hoffman (Jace Marti), 1:02. 7, Albert Lea, Sather (McGill), 2:04. 8, New Ulm, Holm (Hoffman), 11:20 (pp). Penalties--Jacobson, AL (holding), 9:55.

Third period--9, New Ulm, Hoffman (Rewitzer), 13:41. Penalties--AL (too many men on ice), 2:44; Hillman, AL (roughing), 4:40; Thorson, NU (rouhing), 4:40; Seeger, AL (roughing), 11:22.

Shots on goal--Albert Lea 12-12-2--26. New Ulm 7-17-4--28.

Goalies--Albert Lea, Solberg (28-24). New Ulm, G.Wurtzberger (24-19).