Eagle girls win opener at Civic Center

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Tiffany Hoffmann scored two goals and added two assists as the New Ulm Eagle girls' hockey team overcame an early 2-0 Luverne lead to top the Cardinals 5-3 Friday night in non-conference hockey.

Danelle Bode, Liz Bode and Angie Seifert tallied the other scores as New Ulm, playing the first high school hockey game in the New Ulm Civic Center, recorded their first win of the season after two opening losses.

Sam Schmit stopped 23 of 26 shots for the Eagles while Luverne's Sarah Schneekloth, only a seventh grader, stonewalled the Eagles on 35 of their 40 shots.

New Ulm will host Red Wing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2.

"I'll take the win," New Ulm coach Todd Nelson said. "We played a little slow at first -- maybe we were overconfident. I think that we did not come out with the same intensity that we did in our first two games (against Orono and Hutchinson). You have to come out ready to play."

But for the first five minutes of the game, New Ulm was not ready to play, as Luverne, playing their first game of the season, took it to the Eagles to lead 2-0.

Natalie Domagala scored the first of her two first-period goals at the 1:06 mark when she beat Sam Schmit through the five-hole before making it 2-0 four minutes later with a wrister that beat Schmit high on her stick side.

"This is only Sam's second week in the nets," Nelson said. "She does well when the puck is right in front of her, but her angles from far shots are where we are still getting hurt."

But New Ulm responded with two goals in less than four minutes to knot the game at 2-2.

Freshman Tiffany Hoffmann got the Eagles on the board when she beat Schneekloth off a face off with a wrist shot for an unassisted goal coming at the 6:07 mark.

Danelle Bode's goal off of a rebound of a Hoffmann shot pulled New Ulm even at the 10:36 mark.

"I think that we just needed to break the ice a little bit," Nelson said. "She (Hoffmann) is only a ninth grader, but hockey runs in the family for them and hopefully she keeps making positive strides."

After killing a Luverne power play, New Ulm scored a power play goal when Hoffmann put the puck past Schneekloth at the 7:31 mark of the second period.

While the power play goal was great for the Eagles, New Ulm followed that up by killing a 5-on-3 Cardinal power play with both Liz Bode and Danelle Bode in the penalty box.

"We have been doing real well on the penalty killing," Nelson said. "We have worked on that part in practice. Last year, we struggled with that part of the game, but we seemed to work it well tonight."

However, the Cardinals would tie the game at 3-3 at the 14:11 mark on a Chessa Ossefort rebound goal.

That tie lasted only 55 seconds as Liz Bode's goal on a backhand shot put New Ulm ahead for good at 4-3 with less than two minutes to go in the second period.

New Ulm scored the only goal of the third period on a Angie Seifert wrist shot from the slot. It was a 17-minute period where the Eagles played perhaps their best hockey of the night, allowing Luverne only one shot on goal.

"I think that the third period we played real well," Nelson said. "We were covering for each other, blocking shots -- picking up people coming down the ice. That was our best period."

LUVERNE 2 1 0 -- 3

NEW ULM 2 2 1 -- 5