Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Kyle Tauer gets tangles up with a South St. Paul player during the second period Friday a the New Ulm Civic Center. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — The New Ulm boys’ hockey team lost its home opener to the South Saint Paul Packers 4-1 in a nonconference game Friday night.

The Eagles (1-4) struck first with a goal from the stick of Nick Banal early in the first period.

At the 4:19 mark, Banal’s goal came from outside the circles as he beat the Packers’ (2-1) goaltender with a wrist shot assisted by Ethan O’Connor and Max Heiderscheidt.

The Eagles fell behind early, giving up four shots to the Packers one before Banal’s goal became the third shot for the Eagles.

New Ulm was plagued with penalties soon after the lead with Luke Scheid serving a minor penalty for roughing. Goalie Jack Raymond was penalized for a slash, giving the Packers a 5 on 3 advantage for 19 seconds.

The Eagles penalty kill developed two breakaways, while being down a player, to add scoring chances for the Eagles.

At the end of the first period New Ulm led 1-0 giving up 21 shots on goal while only recording five shots on goal in the period.

The Packers tied the game with 12:47 left in the second period. The odd man rush was capitalized by the Packers, while on the power play, with tape-to-tape passing on the offensive strike.

A five-minute major penalty from the Eagles’ Sam Berg put the disadvantage for five minutes with nine minutes left to play in the second period. New Ulm’s Kyle Tauer committed a penalty and the Eagles were on a 5-3 player disadvantage from an interference penalty at mid-ice.

The Packers scored at the 4:51 mark in the second period to take the lead 2-1 on the 5-3 power play.

At this point in the game the Eagles were outshot 34-6 with over four minutes still to play in the second.

With 13:21 left to play in the third period, the Eagles went on the power-play by a roughing penalty by the Packers. New Ulm mounted two quality scoring chances, from two different lines and put four shots on net during the advantage.

Three more penalties by the Eagles, with a total of 10 times being penalized against one penalty for the Packers; as the Packers added one more power-play goal to lead 3-1.

An attempt by the Eagles to produce a scoring chance by leaving the net empty with under two minutes left to play in the game resulted in an empty net goal by the Packers and the lead 4-1.

Jack Raymond, of the Eagles was given the loss in the net, facing 49 shots to New Ulm’s 17 shots on net.

The Eagles will host Redwood Valley at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday for a Big South Conference battle.