Dec 14, 2024
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Mya Hornick handles the puck in the offensive zone during a nonconference girls hockey game against the River Lakes Stars on Friday night at the New Ulm Civic Center.
NEW ULM — Despite a 51-save effort from New Ulm Eagles senior goalie Ava Brennan, a 5-on-3, power-play goal lifted the River Lakes Stars to 2-1 win over the Eagles in a nonconference girls hockey game Friday night at the New Ulm Civic Center.
Coming off of a 2-1 loss at Fairmont on Thursday, the Eagles were tested early and often by an aggressive Stars team that were penalized seven times in the game. New Ulm ended up getting called for six penalties.
“It was an extremely physical game, there were a lot of penalties called,” Eagles head coach Jeremy Reed said. “Our effort level tonight was really good, really good. The girls came in with high energy, high effort, and even though we didn’t have the results that we want, we did a lot of nice things that we’ve been working on this year.”
Brennan, who stopped 30 shots during the first two periods, faced an even more aggressive attack by the now 7-6 Stars in the third period as they looked to overcome a 1-0 deficit.
Abby Storms got the Stars on the board 11:09 into the third to tie the game. Things didn’t get any easier for Brennan and the Eagles after that as Callie Haugen was called for roughing with 4:58 left to play to give the Stars another power play. After a brief referee discussion, another penalty was assessed to Mya Hornick for checking, giving the Stars a 5-on-3 opportunity to take the lead.
“We knew we had the one penalty call, the other one was by surprise,” Reed said. “Sometimes that happens and it’s the adversity part of the game that we try to overcome.”
Less than a minute later, Sophia Hess got a shot over the glove of Brennan to give the Stars their game-winner.
New Ulm, who ended up being outshot 53-29, got on the board first 5:02 into the second period. At that time, Hornick was making one last push to the net in the closing seconds of a power play.
Hornick’s shot was knocked down by Stars goalie Kaydence Roeske, but eighth-grader Brielynn Weston cleaned up the stop for her first career varsity goal.
“She’s played in every game so far and this was her first point, so it’s nice to see them having some success and get rewarded,” Reed said. “It’s going to continue to be a work in progress all year.”
Brennan, Hornick and Jocelyn Pettersen are the Eagles’ only seniors this season and are three of seven upperclassmen on the team. Despite back-to-back losses dropping New Ulm to a 2-8 start to the season, Reed is optimistic that things will start clicking on offense for both his younger players and upperclassmen.
“We are a young team,” Reed said. “If you look at our last few games, our younger players are the ones that are finding the back of the net. Our older players are leading in some other areas and we’re hoping that it’s just a matter of time when we get those upperclassmen that are holding their sticks tight that they start dropping in the net for them.
“They had some really good looks tonight out here, we had a couple of bounces, a couple close calls, a shot in the second period off the crossbar. The third period we had a play that, their goaltender, give her some credit, she made a really good save.”
New Ulm hosts Waseca on Tuesday night.
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