Eagle girls outscore Waseca 6-1, look to work on consistency

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm Eagles girls' hockey team scored three goals in both the first and third periods, and senior goaltender Jenny Neveln stopped 13 of 14 Waseca shots in a 6-1 win over the Bluejays Thursday night at Vogel Arena.

The Eagles moved to 2-0 in the South Central Conference and 5-1 overall.

Junior forward Danelle Bode tallied two goals and added two assists while Mary Otis, Amber Reinhart, Jocelyn Janni and Korynn Fischer all added goals.

The Eagles square off at home against Chaska Monday night at 7 p.m. in a non-conference game.

While it was a game dominated by the Eagles, who held a 44-13 shots-on-goal advantage, it was also a game in which New Ulm coach Todd Nelson felt that his team could have played better.

"We came out and dominated the first period -- got a lot of shots on goal (a 12-2 advantage), and scored three goals. But in the second period, we came out flat-footed," he said. "We were not hustling to the puck and we seemed unsure of ourselves. They scored a goal right after we were on a power-play. We have to learn that against any team we face, we cannot give up or relax against them."

The Eagles, who received votes this week in the state rankings of girl's high school hockey teams, took a 2-0 lead on goals that came exactly two minutes apart early in the game.

New Ulm's Danelle Bode scored the first of her two goals at the 1:13 mark when she stuffed a pass from behind the Bluejays' net from Jocelyn Janni, getting by Waseca goaltender Crystal Johnson low on her glove side.

Two minutes later, at the 3:13 mark, Mary Otis upped the Eagle lead to 2-0 with a goal on an assist from Danielle Fischer.

It became 3-0 for the Eagles when, after killing off a Waseca power play, Amber Reinhart backhanded the puck by Johnson for a 3-0 lead at the 11:43 mark.

With that lead, the Eagles seemed to relax in the second period. Waseca had seven shots on goal, as New Ulm seemed to be a little out of sync.

And that cost New Ulm at 9:11 when the Bluejays' Emily Arnfelt put her own rebound by Neveln to cut the lead to 3-1.

"It is tough ... you get ahead a little bit and you tend to get satisfied," said Nelson. "And in this game, you cannot afford to get satisfied. Teams are getting too good now where you cannot take it easy. You need to go hard all of the time -- things can turn around fast."

And they did for the Eagles in the third period as they came out with more intensity, Danelle Bode scoring her second goal of the game just 50 seconds into the final period off assists from Amber Reinart and Jocelyn Janni.

Two more Eagle goals, 22 seconds apart, lifted them to a 6-1 lead. Janni, who assisted on Bode's second goal, scored off an assist from Bode at the 3:14 mark before junior Korynn Fischer hit the their sixth goal with an assist from Stephanie Stewart.

"We talked between the second and third period that we went from our best period of hockey in the year to probably our worst," said Nelson. "We want to win the (South Central Conference) outright, and if we lose this and continue to win, we would have to share the title."