Chaska clips Eagle girls 8-2

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm High School girls hockey coach Todd Nelson knew coming into his team's contest Monday night with Chaska that it was going to be a tough game.

The Hawks entered the game with a 7-0-1 mark, were leading the Lake Conference and earned a top five ranking in Class "AA."

And maybe that hype intimidated the Eagles, but in reality, Chaska is a very good hockey team.

Andrea Schilling scored four goals and Chaska scored on three of six power plays as they roared by New Ulm 8-2 in the non-conference meeting

Ashley Dietz and Steph Stewart tallied the Eagle goals.

The Eagles, now 5-2 on the season, return to South Central Conference action when they host St. Peter on Friday.

"They are a very good team," said Nelson. "But we just got shell-shocked early. The same thing happened in our game with Hutchinson (the Eagles' only other loss) -- we have to come out and play up to our ability. We kind of looked like we bought a ticket to the game tonight -- we stood around watching and you cannot do that. They played a great game -- they cycled well, they covered for each other and they forechecked aggressively and backchecked well."

And they scored goals.

Chaska would scored four first-period goals against senior goaltender Jenny Neveln -- but to blame her for all the goals would be an injustice as she received little help from her defensemen all game as she stopped 37 of 45 Hawk shots.

'We did not crash the net on offense or defense," said Nelson. "We have to come and play a better game."

Lindsay Block got the Hawks rolling when she skated in front of Neveln and, uncontested, put a wrist shot by Neveln for a 1-0 lead at the 6:50 mark.

Andrea Schilling made it 2-0 less than four minutes later when Meghan Hanson's shot was stopped by Neveln and Schilling put the rebound into the net for a 2-0 lead.

Chaska, increased the lead to 4-0 with two power play tallies less than three minutes apart on goals by Seifert, her second, and Kim McClintock.

"We started to doubt ourselves after a while," Nelson said. "We did not know if we could play with this team or not. We have to do a better job of playing our positions and trusting each other."

Chaska, who outshot the Eagles 7-2 in the first period, fired 21 shots on goal in the second compared to one for the Eagles -- that one by Dietz from just inside the blue line flew by Chaska goalie Laureen Klobuchar on her glove side with five minutes left in the second period.

But goals by Seifert, Maria Evans and McClintock, saw Chaska take a 7-1 lead into the third period.

"We have played Chaska for a number of years and we knew that they were a good team," said Nelson "They have beaten some good teams like Bloomington Jefferson, Edina, Burnsville."

Both teams would score goals in the final 15 minutes with Steph Stewart scoring on an assist from Tiffany Hoffmann.

'It did not help that we had more penalties tonight (six) than I have had in two years combined," Nelson said. "But we had some bright spots -- we showed at different times that we can play with them. Someone has to take charge on the ice and we need to to our job -- you cannot expect someone else to do it."

CHASKA 4 3 1--8

NEW ULM 0 1 1--2

FIRST PERIOD

CHASKA: Block (Hanson) 6:59.

CHASKA:Seifert (Hanson,Block) 10:07. CHASKA: Seifert (Block) 11:49.

CHASKA: McClintock (Seifert, Block) 14:01.

CHASKA Seifert (McClintock, Block) 14:01.

SECOND PERIOD:

CHASKA Seifert (McClintock, Block) 1:31. CHASKA: Evans (Hanson) 3:45.

NEW ULM: Dietz (Janni) 10:00.

CHASKA: McClintock (unassisted) 3:20.

THIRD PERIOD

CHASKA: Seifert (unassisted) 12:41.

NEW ULM : Stewart (Hoffmann) 13:45.

SAVES: Klobuchar (C) 8. Neveln (NU) 37.