NEW ULM — Less than 20 games into the 2019-20 season, there are three levels of separation developing in the West Division of the NA3HL.

Perennial powers North Iowa (16-2-1) leads with 33 points, followed by Granite City (13-3-0-0) with 26 points.

That is where the first level of separation happens. Alexandria (8-5-2-1) is a distant third with 19 points followed by the New Ulm Steel (8-5-1-1) and Willmar (8-7-1-1) with 18 points each.

Breezy Point is a distant 3-15-1-0 with seven points.

Steel coach Zach Stepan, who takes his team to Breezy Point this Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. game, said that the separation in the standings may be misleading.

“It looks more separated than potentially could be,” he said. “We have some games in hand — we have four games in hand on North Iowa and we have two on Willmar. So separation looks deeper than it might be as long as we take care of business. So right now we have the ability to close that gap.”

The Steel will have to do that on the road as their next five games are away before finally coming home Saturday, November 30 when they host North Iowa.

Stepan said that the difference between a team that is winning and one that is struggling is many times the structure of a team.

“North Iowa and Granite skill-wise are at the top of the food chain,” he said. “We are right there with them but for different teams. discipline can be a big thing and when you play teams like North Iowa and Granite you need to have that. We are working towards that with some of our younger players.”

Recruiting better players usually means winning and winning draws the better players to your program. It is a cycle that the Steel and Stepan are working towards here in New Ulm.

“And getting those better players goes off of contacts that a coach has too,” Stepan said. “That is something that I am working towards in the coaching world.”

Stepan played hockey for four years at Minnesota State-Mankato and was drafted by Nashville in the NHL before a series of concussions ended his playing career.

“We need to be consistent on Saturday at Breezy. We have the talent that if we do play the game the right way we can win a lot of hockey games.”

COHEN CALLED UP: Two weeks ago, the Steel lost their top scorer in Jacob Halvorson as he was called up to the NAHL Chippewa Steel. This week, their top goaltender, A.J. Cohen was also called up to Chippewa. That means that New Ulm native Jack Raymond and Zac Hattan (Kalamazoo, Mich.) will see time in the nets.

“We are here to develop players for the NAHL and college,” Stepan said.

Halvorson has scored one goal in four games for Chippewa, who just completed an Alaskan game schedule.