Eagles shut out Fairmont

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM - The only real statistic that you would need to know to figure out who won the game were the shots on goal.

New Ulm 73, Fairmont 3.

Jamie Hoffmann scored a hat trick with goals in each period and three lines scored as New Ulm continued their early season domination of opposing teams with a 9-0 pasting of Fairmont.

Chris Reinarts added two goals with Brent Clyne scoring a goal and assisting on three.

New Ulm (5-0) has now outscored opponents 31-6 in their five contests.

"The one thing that I really liked - while our passing wasn't on and we may have tried to do some individual things - is that we kept our feet moving," said Eagle coach Tom Macho. "It was kind of fun to watch that buzsaw going all over the ice. We used all four lines tonight; everyone got almost equal time. We wanted the kids to keep their feet moving. You can get into a game of chippiness with a game like this. The concentration that we had all game of trying to score was the best part of the game."

New Ulm goalie Gary Wurtzberger, who may well have felt like the television commercial Maytag Repairman - the loneliest guy in town - would face realistically only one shot on goal in the game, that coming in the first period. His other two stops were of clearing passes.

The Eagles would need just over three minutes to get their first goal of the contest when Jamie Hoffmann pushed a centering pass from Brent Clyne and beat Fairmont goalie Brady Meyer -- who would be replaced in the second period after yielding his fifth goal -- for a 1-0 lead at the 3:33 mark.

Scott Stueber's power play goal -- with Fairmont's Justin Berhow in the penalty box for holding -- gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead as Stueber beat Meyer high on his stick side at the 7:55 mark.

Brent Clyne's rebound goal of a Scott Stewart shot increased the Eagles's lead to 3-0 with just 47 seconds left in the first period; a period that saw the Eagles outshoot Fairmont 18-2.

Macho, who saw his team let-up some in a 6-1 win over St. Peter-LeSueuer-Henderson, was a little worried that perhaps that would happen again.

"We played pretty good in that second period," commented Macho who saw his team fire an incredible 40 shots on Cardinal goalies Brady Meyer and Tony Garanki in that second period. "I have never seen that many shots on goal in one period and I have been around for a long time," said Macho.

Hoffmann's second goal of the game less than a minute into that second period was followed by scores from Chris Reinarts, a power play goal by Jay Geisthardt and a Blake Thorson tally as the Eagles led 7-0 after two periods of play.

With running time in that third period, New Ulm peppered Garanki with 19 shots with Hoffmann's third goal coming at 10:33 to a barage of hats that were tossed on the ice at Vogel Arena.

Reinarts' second goal of the game closed out the scoring for the Eagles with 12:56 left in the game.

"I was also happy with the way that we moved the puck around on our power plays (two goals)," Macho said. "In the second period, we were looking for that off-side defensemen. They (Fairmont) were leaving him wide open. Our defensemen (Adam Macho and Kyle Marti) must have had just a ton of shots."

FAIRMONT 0-0-0=0

NEW ULM 3-4-2=9

FIRST PERIOD

NU: Hoffmann (Clyne, Burgau) 3:33. NU: Stueber (unassisted) 7:55. NU: Clyne (Stewart) 14:13.

SECOND PERIOD

NU: Hoffmann (Burgau, Clyne) :54. NU: Reinarts (Marti) 2:00. NU: Geisthardt (Anderson, Thorson) 6:44. NU:Thorson (Geisthardt) 9:29

THIRD PERIOD

NU: Hoffmann (Clyne) 10:33. NU: Reinarts (Stueber) 12:56.