NEW ULM — In the world of Junior Hockey, sometimes there are some long road trips.

This weekend, the St. Louis Junior Blues, based out of Affton, Missouri, make a long 560-mile, 8 1/2-hour trip to the New Ulm Civic Center to take on the New Ulm Steel in Friday and Saturday NA3HL games.

Both games have 7:10 p.m. puck drops.

The Junior Blues come in leading the Central Division with a 13-6-0-1 mark, while the Steel post a 7-4-1-1 in a tough West Division.

This will be the first-ever meeting between the New Ulm Steel and St. Louis here in New Ulm.

“They are a tough team to beat every year,” Steel coach Zach Stepan said. “We will get Michael Savelkoul back (leads the Steel in assists with 15) for these games and Keegan (Bauman 11 goals and nine assists) is starting to feel better, so we will see how his shoulder is this weekend.”

Stepan said that playing a non-division team like St. Louis is something that adds more motivation for the players.

“St. Louis has the knack for picking up younger, really high-skilled players, so for us to keep those guys in check will be our physical side of the game,” he said. “They will play with a lot of pace. The bigger sheet (Olympic sheet) may be something that they can take advantage of. So we need to play more physical — that was something that we had started to get away from. We are in the West and they are in the Central, so this will be a statement weekend for both teams. There are some bragging rights at stake.”

The Steel also need points this weekend as they are tied for fourth place in the West with Alexandria with 16 points. Alexandria plays at a tough Coulee Region Friday.

“We need to have our veterans step up this weekend and we need to stay out of the penalty box because if we put a team like St. Louis on the power play, we are going to have issues,” Stepan said.

The Junior Blues have 14 of their players on their roster from Missouri but they have played Junior Hockey in either the NA3HL or the parent NAHL.

Friday is “Pro Performance Night” at the Civic Center, with a remote car starter drawn for. Saturday is “$1 Hot Dog Night”, sponsored by Fred’s Dogs and the New Ulm Hockey Association.