Macho sees improved play in boys hockey team

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Despite a 3-1 loss to St. Cloud Cathedral Tuesday night, New Ulm High School hockey coach Tom Macho felt that his team played its best game of the season.

"The kids gave it everything that they had," Macho said. "This was just the way that hockey is supposed to be played. We scored on a power play (on a Jeff Schnobrich goal). In big games it will be Jeff who is scoring. But we also had two assists on that goal so we worked the puck around."

St. Cloud Cathedral, a top ten team in Class "A" scored all three of its goals on power plays.

"We were one-for-five on power play chances and they were three-for-five so it was the power plays that were the difference -- we said at the start of the year that special teams will be a big part of any success."

"This was our best effort of the year ( after a big 7-1 win over Sauke Rapids-Rice on Saturday)," Macho said. "I think that the effort is because we now have everyone back and they are getting more comfortable. Tyler Zollner played a solid game in goal for us. He had been struggling as of late but (Tuesday) was very strong."

He added that all five defensemen also had strong games.

"Those five had a lot of work to do. And Jeff Schnobrich always comes to play. Some of our younger players like (sophomore) Jordan Trullinger gave a good effort with just a little body. Alex Kral and Andy Kitzberger (two juniors) gave solid efforts."

BIG GAME SATURDAY:The Eagles will get a big road test on Saturday when they meet Albert Lea, a favorite in the section.

"After playing well against St. Cloud, I hope we can put forth the same effort against Albert Lea," Macho said. "I don't think that they are as good as St. Cloud was. Right now, Mankato East is making some noise in the section, which kind of surprised everyone. If we have to go today, we would be either fifth or sixth in the section seedings. But we have a tougher schedule than most of the teams have. If we continue to improve, I think that we could be a darkhorse in the section."

NEED SCORER: Macho said that one of the things that the Eagles need is to find some consistent scoring.

"We need to find someone other that Jeff Schnobrich to score for us. We need to start putting the puck in the net," Macho said.

He also said that they need to step up in other areas.

"We have to work on moving the puck quicker on our power play. We have the idea of what we are supposed to do. We understand the different keys to do that, but we are just not doing it fast enough. That just comes with read and react to game situations. We also need to react faster in our penalty kill situation. We take too long to adjust to it."

GREYHOUNDS, CHARGERS MEET FRIDAY: New Ulm Cathedral boy's basketball coach Paul Hazuka said that his kids played hard in their 63-40 loss to Cedar Mountain Tuesday.

"We had their lead down to eight points with four minutes to go in the game and had the ball," he said. "We didn't, we just do not convert on key opportunities. We had 18 turnovers in the game we do not see the floor well to defenses. We focus on ourselves and we make passes and there it goes."

Hazuka said that both Eric Schugel and Adam Neubauer both played well, but the Greyhounds need to find more consistent scoring.

"The kids are down now. We like to make excuses and I think that we need to support each other better the way we need to. We play MVL (at Cathedral Friday night). This will not be an easy game."

CHARGERS WIN IN OT: Minnesota Valley Lutheran erased a 13-point first half lead and slowly came back for a 64-61 win over GFW.

"We did not make any physical adjustments at halftime," MVL coach Craig Morgan said.

"We just talked about the things that we did wrong in the first half and what we could do to minimize the mistakes. We needed to rebound better in the second half, that was our number one concern at halftime. That and turnovers -- we tried to make the great pass rather than the good pass. Thus kids wanted to do more than they were capable of doing."

Despite being a young team, Morgan was not worried at halftime, but did worry in the overtime when Kevin Erdahl hit two three-point shots for a six-point T-Bird lead.

"We were down six right away in the overtime and those can put a dagger into you," he said. "But the kids battle back. Greg Holzhueter stepped it up for us at the point guard spot and got six points for us in the overtime. He ran our offense well."

Morgan felt that the turning point in the overtime was the will and desire of the guys not to give up.

"They were down and the team could have given up on those two three's, but they came back for the win. That was to their credit."

Morgan said that their meeting Friday at Cathedral will be a big test for the Chargers.

"Cathedral is not a 1-4 team. They have potential to knock some people off. It is always a hard game at Cathedral."

Jim Bastian can be reached at sports@nujournal.com