NEW ULM — The New Ulm Steel, coming off of a 1-0 win in Alexandria Saturday night, begin a four games in five days stretch this week.

New Ulm (6-8-0-1) play Wednesday night at Willmar (2-14-1-0) before hosting Willmar on Friday and then entertaining Breezy Point (3-15-2-0) Saturday.

Both games are at 7:10 p.m. at the New Ulm Civic Center.

“We have only two days of practice to get ready because we do not skate [Thanksgiving],” Steel coach Andrew Kolb said. “This is a huge opportunity for us to get some points. We set a goal for this month and we are still on track. But this week is going to show a lot — this is probably the biggest weekend of the year so far for us.”

Last weekend was a roller coaster of emotions for the Steel. They led West Division-leading Granite City (14-2 and on a 13 game winning streak) 4-1 with 15 minutes left in the game when the Lumberjacks scored five goals to win 6-4.

New Ulm rebounded from that loss with a 1-0 win over Alexandria Saturday.

Kolb said that after losing to Granite City, he was at a loss for words.

“Myself and (assistant coach) Nick Campbell told the kids when we were up 4-1 that Granite was not going to quit and would come at us harder,” he said. “We could not get the puck out of our own end. We were in their zone for a total of 3 1/2 minutes in the third period. We got pretty much dominated in that period,”

New Ulm came back the next night with that 1-0 win over he Blizzard. “We won that game in the third period and in my three years here I do not remember a lot of games that we won in the third period. That was a good win and if there was a team that we needed to beat it was Alexandria.”

The Blizzard are four points ahead of the Steel for the final playoff spot.

“We learned a lot about our team with a win Saturday,” Kolb said. “We want to keep that going this week.”

NEW ULM CHAMBER NIGHT FRIDAY: Friday night is “New Ulm Chamber Night” when the Steel host Willmar at 7:10 p.m. There will be reduced game admission tickets for sale at the Chamber Office.

Saturday night is “PROformance Auto Start Night.” Fans can register to win a Remote Car Starter which will be given away at the game.

And as usual if the Steel win by six or more goals, all fans at the game wil receive a coupon for six free Tacos courtesy of Taco John’s of New Ulm.