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Tigers win Big South showdown

By Jim Bastian

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM — Marshall scored three goals in the second period to break open a scoreless game as the Tigers took a step forward to the Big South Conference hockey title with a 4-2 win over New Ulm Thursday night at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Mason Plante, the state’s leading goal scorer, added two more scores and now has 30 on the season.

He also added an assist.

Landon Frost and Tristan VanDeVere each added a goal.

Landon Strong and Glavine Schugel scored the Eagles’ goals. Schugel now as 22 goals on the year. Josh Seidl, Teddy Giefer, Ethan O’Connor and Shane Esser added assists.

New Ulm goalie Jack Raymond stopped 26 of 30 Marshall shots.

For New Ulm and head coach Ryan Neuman, the game really came down to mistakes in the second period.

“We had three mental breakdowns (in the second period) and gave them odd-man rushes and breakaways,” Neuman said. “They took advantage of our mistakes and we did not capitalize on chances that we had.”

The Tigers took advantage of a power-play opportunity when Plante was in the right place at the right time when he pushed the puck by Raymond at the 6:05 mark.

Frost upped the lead to 2-0 when he took a feed from Plante and was wide open on Raymond’s glove side for an easy score.

“We gave them the odd-man rush on that second goal,” Neuman said. “Then they set up a play that should not have happened. That was on our forwards not getting back.”

Marshall would make it 3-0 at the 15:51 mark of the second period when VanDeVere skated in alone on Raymond for the eventual game-winner.

“They took advantage of our defensemen not paying attention to them and he got behind them,” Neuman said.

The Eagles got some life back in them when Strong’s slap shot from just inside the blue line got by Marshall goalie Dominik Capers (34 saves on 36 shots) to cut the lead to 3-1 at the 7:40 mark of the third period before Plante essentially ended the game with his second goal at the 12:48 mark.

Schugel’s power play score with just over a minute left sliced the lead to 4-2.

Neuman said that the first goal by Marshall in the second period gave the Tigers momentum.

“When we get down it puts pressure on us and we start to squeeze the stick harder,” Neuman said. “But deep down I still think that we are the better hockey team. I think that at times we tried to do to much early on instead of making the simple play.”

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