Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Maddi O’Connor fights for a rebound with Emma Schultz of Mankato East during the first period Tuesday at the New Ulm Civic Center.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm girls’ hockey team got off to a fast start and had no problem with Mankato East on Tuesday as the Eagles defeated the Cougars 7-1 in nonconference action at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Senior forward Jayda Helget led the Eagles with a pair of goals and two assists on Senior Night. She scored a power play goal in the second period to put the Eagles up 5-1 at that point.

Ally Steffensmeier also scored two goals and had an assist. Molly Scheid scored a goal along with Brooke Arneson and McKenna Strong.

New Ulm got goals in the first period from Helget, Arneson and Strong to take an early 3-0 lead. Maddi O’Connor and Julia Helget assisted on Arneson’s goal and Evie Sellner and Julia Helget each got an assist on the goal from Strong.

Steffensmeier put the Eagles up 4-0 in the second period on an assist from Alexa Steffl before the Cougars got on the board with 8:15 to go in the second period. Jayda Helget’s power play goal gave the Eagles a 5-1 lead with 2:25 left in the second period.

Steffensmeier scored her second goal of the game in the third period with 14:08 left and Scheid later scored to make it 7-1. Scheid , Steffl and Klein added assists for New Ulm.

New Ulm will host Luverne on Thursday.