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New Ulm Steel prepare for Granite City this Friday night

NEW ULM — As the New Ulm Steel prepare for a home game at 7:10 p.m. Friday at the New Ulm Civic Center in a NA3HL game against West Division-leading Granite City (15-3), they will have finished the first third of their season at 8-9-0-1.

That puts them four points out of a playoff spot.

Steel coach Andrew Kolb said that the team is not where he felt they would be at this juncture.

“We had that five-game losing streak and that hurt a lot,” he said. “This organization has high expectations. That means developing players, moving them on and also winning hockey games. We did have a lot of turnover [as every team does]. We lost a ton of skilled players — we were an older, veteran team last season. So we have a lot of new, young faces this year. The players that we expect to carry the load last year were used for depth last year. There are a lot of new players with new roles.”

He said that does take time to develop the chemistry and to jell.

“We have taken some strides forward the last few weeks. We started with the Granite City game where we led them 4-1 going into the third period against one of the best teams in the entire league,” he said. “We lost (6-4) but we made positive strides. But we have also played up and down hockey at times.

“We get Granite City here Friday and we need to play the entire game the way we played the first two periods in our last game against them. We need to leave it all on the ice Friday.”

WIEBEN SIGNS WITH STEEL: Defenseman Nick Wieben signed with the Steel and played in the win over Breezy Point on Saturday.

“He was playing in the NAHL with Sioux Falls but they had a coaching change,” Kolb said. “Some of the players on that team looked to go elsewhere. He is signed with us but we will not know if he wil be a full-time player for us — we will know more this week.”

NORTHSTAR BUILDER NIGHT: Friday night is men’s night and Donner Laser Cutting is the sponsor. There is a bottle opener for the first 225 men in attendance. Guest beer man Stunt Monkey from 96.7 KDOG will be selling beer.

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