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Big 3rd period lifts Eagles to win

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Teddy Giefer (21) takes a shot during the second period against Luverne Thursday at the New Ulm Civic Center.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm boys’ hockey team scored three goals in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and went on to defeat Luverne 4-1 Thursday night in a Big South Conference game at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Glavine Schugel scored two third-period goals — his 23rd and 24th goals of the season — with Braxten Hoffmann and Teagan Kamm each adding goals.

Teddy Giefer had two helpers with Schugel, Hoffmann and Ethan O’Connor each adding assists.

Eagles’ goalie Joey Gag stopped 22 of 23 shots including two breakaway chances by Luverne.

For the Eagles and head coach Ryan Neuman, the win was especially big because it was New Ulm’s third game in four days.

And it came with a strong third period.

“We were not scoring goals in those first two periods but we were not giving them a lot,” Neuman said. “We just had that one blunder (on a Colby Crabtree goal for Luverne) but we kept them on the outside defensively. And we started attacking them in the third period.”

Crabtree’s goal at the 11:26 mark of the second period broke a scoreless tie.

But that goal did not last long as just over two minutes later Braxten Hoffmann scored his 16th goal of the season on a New Ulm power play to knot the game off of assists from Ethan O’Connor and Teddy Giefer.

“We just got a puck to the net and had Braxten in the right spot and he banged it in,” Neuman said.

The Eagles, who play at Albert Lea next Thursday in a nonconference battle, took a 2-1 lead at the 3:26 mark of the third period when Teagan Kamm notched his eighth goal of the year when he beat Cardinals goalie Shaid Shearer, with Schugel earning his 23rd assist of the year.

Just under eight minutes later, Schugel scored his first goal of the game at the 11:23 mark for a 3-1 lead.

“We wore them down in that (third) period,” Neuman said. “They want to try and stretch the ice and try to get an odd-man rush. So when we bottled them up in their own end, that eliminates them from doing that.”

Luverne pulled Shearer with 1:20 left in the game for an extra attacker and Schugel, who is a golfer in the spring, sank a long putt from center ice into the open net for his second goal and a 4-1 lead.

“This win should give us the two or three seed in the section,” Neuman said. “And we have a two-game lead in the conference over Marshall so we should have that wrapped up.”

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