Many return for Eagles' hockey

By ANDY ROGERS

Journal Sports Editor

After a successful 18-6 run last year the New Ulm boys hockey team has some good news this year. Most of its' top players are returning.

Seven of the top nine forwards are back from last year including the leading scorer Jamie Hoffmann, three defensemen and both goaltenders.

The squad has some high hopes for the year.

"Every team starts in the same place," head coach Tom Macho said. "Are we going to win the conference? Are we going to the state tournament? All that sort of thing? Is all of that possible? Yes. It's a possibility in this case. If everything falls into place we could do all of those things."

But you never know. There maybe injuries or other unforeseen problems, according to Macho.

"We can be one of the teams that could get there, but it's a long ways away. And we only worry about it one day at a time," Macho said.

"The whole season will depend on 'can we put it all together'."

There's always one part of the game that might have questions, and this year it's the youth on defense.

"Defensemen are sort of like the linebackers in football -- no glory. But they got to keep the puck out of the net," Macho said.

Three of the returners have played varsity before, two of which are seasoned veterans. But there will also be a sophomore and two juniors coming from junior varsity on defense.

"You never know how the others will react in pressure game-time situations," Macho said.

But so far the players have stepped up and played well in scrimmages.

"So far they've done their job admirably," Macho said.

During preseason, the team played Blaine, Chisago Lakes and Farmington for scrimmages.

"They did fairly well. They didn't give up a lot of goals," Macho said. "But in any of those situations we didn't work on a penalty kill or something like that. And you never know how many penalties we'll get and will the defensemen, then, play well."

A key loss from the defense was Paul Yager.

"When you have someone who's 210 pounds to move you miss someone of that stature," Macho said. "He had the size."

He's been replaced by younger and lighter players.

As for other areas with more experience, the leading scorer from last year Hoffmann, as well as the third leading scorer Brenton Clyne. As well as the teams' "fourth leading scorer, fifth leading scorer, sixth, they're all back," said Macho.

"So hopefully they'll all up it a few more points a this year and maybe a little more team orientation this year."

The offense lost Travis Thorson, the team's second leading scorer last year. Which is a key loss.

"Travis was a guy who always followed up the play and scored that way. We probably don't have a guy who's a put-the-puck-in-the-net type of guy trailing from behind," Macho said. "We have more balance and more experience, and that will help the situation."

With Gary Wertzberger and Isaac Forstner returning to the goal, the team has some more veterans in the net.

"Anytime you have experience in nets things can work out," Macho said. "Both are back and both played pretty well last year in a pretty successful year. We hope we can build on that."

The team travels to Austin today to open up the season. Austin participated in the state tournament last year and lost one player, so New Ulm expects some good competition.

"This is really a tough way to start the season," Macho said. "We beat them last year at our rink, so you know they're going ready for this one. But if you want to go on, you have to play in the tough situation."

The teams' home opener will be against St. Michael-Albertville at 3 p.m. Saturday in Vogel Arena.