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December 17, 1999
Eagles rout FairmontBy BOB VARMETTE Journal Sports Writer NEW ULM -- Children shouldn't be allowed to see such carnage. Adults shouldn't either. The Fairmont Cardinals taught some valuable lessons in how not to play hockey, dropping a 6-1 decision to the New Ulm Eagles Thursday in a Central Minnesota Conference boys matchup. First, goalies aren't superhuman. Allowing 58 shots on goal is a good way to lose. Second, you can't let opposing players camp out in front of your goal. They'll clean up. Eagle forward Jamie Hoffman cleaned up the garbage, recording his first high school hat trick, and all were rebounds stuffed past Fairmont goalie Nick Boisen. "All those goals were nothing pretty," New Ulm coach Tom Macho said. "He was Johnny on the spot and he works hard." The three goals snapped something of a malaise for Hoffman, who had been lately lamenting missed opportunities. "It was good to get the hat trick," Hoffman said. "They let you sit there in front of the goal. They didn't play too much body in front." Boisen -- the beseiged Fairmont senior goaltender -- was only playing his second game after returning from a football injury. Ironically, he suffered his broken leg in a game against New Ulm. Boisen, though, showed no effects of the injury. Without 52 saves from him the score could've been much uglier, maybe as ugly as the game. "He's supposed to stop the first shot," Fairmont coach Rob Sohler said. "If he gets the rebound too -- great. We just weren't covering the rebounds. That has been one of our positives this year." The Cardinals were trapped in their own zone for much of the night, and went on the attack infrequently and tentatively, getting off only 13 shots. Fairmont (1-4, 0-1) spent much of the first and second periods just trying to keep up with New Ulm (5-2, 3-0). "We're just quicker," Macho said. "That's the No. 1 thing. ... We just have better personnel. I'd like to say it was better coaching, but we have three lines that are just about better than anyone." The worst of it was the second period. Boisen faced an onslaught of 28 New Ulm shots, and many of were quality scoring chances. The Eagles tallied three times in the period with Hoffman picking up his second and third goals of the night. The sophomore slipped a rebound past Boisen with 10:49 left in the period off a shot from junior defenseman Jeff Reiter that went to the boards and ricocheted onto Hoffman's stick. A little more than four minutes later, Hoffman camped out in front again and gave the Eagles a 5-1 lead. This time, Hoffman pushed a rebound past Boisen with 5:05 in the period after the Cardinal goalie rebuffed Travis Thorson's close-in shot from the right side of the goal. "This game was kind of expected," Sohler said. "We're young and we're inexperienced. It's the first conference game for a lot of these guys. We just had a mental letdown in the second period. The guys didn't play their positions, but New Ulm has a helluva team this year. They're going to be tough in this section." Hoffman scored in the first period, also, scoring on a rebound off a shot from the slot by senior defenseman Jacob Holm. "Our lines were working together really good," Hoffman said. "Everything fell together." Ryan Wellmann also scored in the first period for the Eagles. The forward tallied with 5:48 in the period for a 2-0 New Ulm advantage, assisted by Brian Meier. Fairmont trimmed the Eagles' margin to 2-1 with 48 seconds left in the period when senior Eric Householder got one past New Ulm sophomore goalie Isaac Forstner. Forstner made 12 saves on the night. But the Cardinals, in reality, had only three quality scoring chances in the game. Still, they managed to carry some of the play in the third period. "They battled us," Macho said. "A couple of times, we had trouble getting out of our own zone. And Isaac had to make a couple of good saves. ... At times we forgot our game. We went helter-skelter. We didn't always stay in our positions because things were going easy for us." Fairmont 1 0 0--1 New Ulm 2 3 1--6 First Period--1, New Ulm, Jamie Hoffman (Jacob Holm), 6:16. 2, New Ulm, Ryan Wellman (Brian Meier), 9:12. 3, Fairmont, Eric Householder (Dave Supalla, Andy Manske), 14:12. Second Period--4, New Ulm, Ryan Neumann (Jace Marti), 1:22. 5, New Ulm, Hoffman (Jeff Reiter), 4:11. 6, New Ulm, Hoffman (Travis Thorson), 9:55. Third Period--7, New Ulm, Thorson (Holm), 11:53. Shots on goal--Fairmont 4-4-5--13. New Ulm 15-28-15--58. Goalies--Fairmont, Nick Boisen (58-52). New Ulm, Issac Forstner (13-12).
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