Eagle pucksters return solid nucleus

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Veteran New Ulm hockey coach Tom Macho, beginning his 29th season at the helm of the Eagles, will try and piece together another successful season with the Eagles.

And Macho will have a nucleus of seven forwards, two veteran defensemen and a solid goalie as they enter the 2003-04 season.

"We have back (forwards) Jay Geisthardt, Brett Burgau, who were both key performers for us last season," Macho said. "Dave Hitchcock returns as does Landon Rewitzer. Jeff Schnobrich, who had a good season for us last year is back as is Nate Kloos."

Back on defense are veterans Ryan Turbes and Adam Macho. But both are battling injuries at the start of the season. Turbes is recovering from a broken ankle (in football) and currently is having trouble getting a skate on because of the swelling from that injury. Meanwhile, Macho had surgery on both of his knees in the off-season.

"He found out that both of his ACLs are gone. He hurt them in baseball - he has braces on both of them but the question is how well can he perform. That will be a question mark."

Junior netminder Tyler Zollner is back. "He came along well last year -- he is a very intense player. During practices, the kids will be joking around but Tyler is busy working on angles. This year, he has a new problem because of the Olympic rink at the Civic Center. All of his angles have to be readjusted. The first day (of practice) he had a little bit of problems (with that). Now he has adjusted well to the (olympic) rink."

Last year, Geisthardt, Burgau and Rewitzer were together on one line and Macho said that he will not break up that veteran line. "Plus we had a line of Schnobrich, Hitchcock and Kloos so two of our lines are pretty well back intact. They know pretty well what each other can do -- they have been waiting all summer for the season. They have worked out together."

But Macho said that the third and fourth lines are wide open.

"We have JJ Germscheid, Eric Portner, Levi Stugelmeyer, Justin Traulich and a sophomore in Andy Metzen filling in," Macho said. "So there are six or seven players that will battle it out for the last two lines."

The injuries to both Turbes and Macho have forced the bringing up of two players from the "B" squad in Nick Besemer and Nick Breu. "We also have a couple more players in Dave Rodenberg and Tom Fischer that can fill in their also. They are both sophomores."

Macho said that the injury bug has hurt the numbers for the team early in the season.

"We do not have quite the depth that we have had in the past. We need to stay injury-free the rest of the season."

He feels that the strength of the Eagle icemen this year " will be a strong first two lines. They have the experience of playing tough competition last year. We also thought that our defensemen would be pretty good but the injuries hurt."

Despite the injuries, Macho is optimistic about this year. "You can always put together a pretty good hockey team when you have a good goalie. And (Tyler Zollner) will keep us in a lot of games this season. We should be able to score enough and our defense should be able to help him out enough that we can win our fair share of games."

Macho looks for the Eagles to be the pick in the South Central Conference this year. In the Section , Macho looks for Mankato East (ranked 13th in the state by "Let's Play Hockey) and Albert Lea along with New Ulm to battle it out for the section crown now that Rochester Lourdes and Northfield have been moved into a different section.

The Eagles open their season Thursday, December 4th when they host Owatonna at 7:30 p.m.