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Miller nets hat trick in Eagles’ 4-2 win

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm's Nate Miller scores a goal in the first period against Marshall on Thursday at the New Ulm Civic Center. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — It was Miller Time at the New Ulm Civic Center on Thursday night.

Senior wing Nate Miller recorded his first varsity hat trick and freshman center Glavine Schugel scored his fourth goal of the season as the New Ulm boys’ hockey team won its second-straight game with a 4-2 win against Marshall in a Big South Conference contest.

Miller earned his hat trick with two first-period goals and a early third-period score that gave the Eagles (2-2-1) a 4-2 lead.

Brandon Mehlhop added three assists — all coming on Miller’s goals. Bayler Kraus, Nick Banal and Miller each added assists.

New Ulm goalie Jack Raymond recorded 20 saves in the game.

Marshall’s goals came from Chase VanDeVere and Dylan Criquet-Danielson.

“This was a nice win for the guys,” New Ulm coach Ryan Neuman said. “Once we get a lead we need to put a team away and not just keep nibbling away on it. We need to have that instinct to put people away.”

What Neuman was referring to was a 2-0 lead that the Eagles established after the first period.

Miller’s first goal came when he took a pretty pass from Mehlhop and tipped the puck by Tigers’ goalie Trey Nelson for a 1-0 lead. Kraus got the second assist at the 3:45 mark before the tandem of Miller and Mehlhop made it 2-0 at the 5:48 mark with Banal getting the second helper.

But the Tigers (2-3) came back to tie the game on goals from VanDeVere and Criquet-Danielson less than two minutes apart in the second period.

“We had a letdown again,” Neuman said. “It was nothing fancy. We are controlling the play, we are forechecking them. We let them come down and we get beat and let them take a shot that he should not be shooting and it ends up in the back of the net.”

However, the Eagles regained the lead late in the second period when Schugel pushed the puck by Nelson at the 15:29 mark of the second period for a 3-2 lead.

Miller capped off his night at the 5:53 mark of the thrd period with a rebound goal for 4-2 lead and a hat trick with Mehlhop getting his third assist.

“He is such a good player,” Miller said of Mehlhop. “He finds a lot of space and he always knows where I am going to be and it easy for me to put the puck in the net.”

Miller said that the win was huge especially with the early season tough schedule that the Eagles had.

“After going 0-2-1 in the first three games we needed to get going so it was nice to come out of these five games 2-2-1,” Miller said.

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