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Steel to host West-leading Rochester on Saturday

NEW ULM — In the New Ulm Steel’s first three home games this season at the New Ulm Civic Center, they have drawn crowds of 782, 564 and 749.

That kind of attendance is great for team support and appreciated.

“We need that help from them but when we go to North Iowa or Granite City or Alexandria it is like you are at a basketball game with the “sixth man” or football with the “12th man“,” Steel coach Andrew Kolb said. “Those are tough environments to play in when we go on the road. Here it is a tough place to play at because we play on an Olympic sheet of ice but we want to make it an even tougher environment with crowd noise here as well — we want that. We want that noise support and energy in the building when our guys come out for warm-ups, after each period or during games. We want to make this a tough place for opposing teams to play in.”

Saturday night, the Steel, 3-2-0-1 and in fifth place in the West Division, host the West Division leading Rochester Grizzlies who have a 9-1 record prior to these two teams meeting in Rochester on Friday.

“They are basically a new team in our division,” Kolb said. “They blew up last year’s team — they are under new ownership and a new coach and all of their players are new from that team. That organization had gone through a lot of players in the past. Now it looks like they have established something good there. That is good for the league and for our division. They are affiliated with Austin in the NAHL (North American Hockey League).We are excited to play them this weekend in a back-to-back.”

Prior to Friday night’s contest in Rochester, the Grizzlies have outscored opponents 53-23 compared to the Steel, who have been outscored 23-25 in their games.

The Grizzlies are led by Vladislv Sonokin, who has 10 goals and Richard Szabo who leads with 17 points (eight goals and nine assists).

Jarrett Cammarata leads the Steel with four goals and four assists.

Saturday the Steel will wear their pink jerseys for Breast Cancer Awareness and if you wear your pink shoelaces or pink socks you will get $1 off of tap beer in the first period.

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