NEW ULM — The New Ulm Eagles girls’ hockey team scored on two of their three power plays and seventh-grader Ava Brennan stopped all 17 Delano shots to record her first varsity shutout as New Ulm blanked Delano 2-0 Saturday afternoon in a non-conference hockey game at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Ally Steffensmeier and Julia Helget scored goals for the Eagles.

Molly Scheid and Alexa Steffl recorded assists for New Ulm.

“This was a good win for us,” New Ulm coach Kristin Faber said. “It was not only our first win of the year but this was a good win in our sections. I have seen improvement in all three games and today we were able to sustain a little bit more on the offensive side. This was a pretty good win for the girls.”

After a scoreless first period that saw New Ulm outshoot Delano 14-4 (the Eagles held a 37-17 shot advantage in the game), New Ulm got on the board at the 15:55 mark of the second period when Steffensmeier beat Delano goalie Grace Glasrud with Scheid earning the helper.

The Eagles carried that slim 1-0 lead into the third period.

New Ulm upped that lead to 2-0 with 7:09 left in the game when Julia Helget scored the Eagles’ second power play goal off an assist from Steffl.

Faber said that her team has been working in practice on improving the power play.

“We spent time on it this week,” Faber said. “In our last two games we were not controlling the puck on the power play — we were just kind of throwing it around. One of our goals was kind of a flukey when it deflected off of their defenseman. But overall our power play and penalty kill were better this game.”

And Brennan in the nets stifled Delano all game.

“Ava has played huge for us this year,” Faber said. “She is pretty fearless in the nets but she also has that calm confidence which is good for our team. She is learning on the run and doing a heck of a job for us.”