NEW ULM — New Ulm Steel head coach Zach Stepan said Monday that he knows that his team has some things to clean up following weekend losses to Willmar, 4-1 on Friday and 5-3 to Alexandria on Saturday at the New Ulm Civic Center.

“But I like the potential we have in the locker room,” Stepan said “I did not think that the difference in the shots on goal (in the Alexandria game where New Ulm was outshot 41-26) did not emulate how the game went. We had the puck on our stick quite a bit. We just did not do anything with it.”

Stepan said that the Steel had more puck possession time in the Alexandria game.

“It was pretty good but the problem was were the breakdowns we were having were really bad breakdowns,” he said. “There were not a lot of them but when they did happen they created scoring chances.”

On the bright side, Stepan looked at the speed and the determination of his players.

“I don’t have one line that I need to focus on as much as I did last year with Jacob Halvorson, Keegan Bauman and Michael Savelkoul,” he said. “But this year we need to get some of these new players to step up to the pace of junior hockey. I think that they have a lot of potential.”

Stepan said that he was very happy with the play of goalie Zac Hattan in both contests.

“I talked to a goalie evaluator and he said Zac did everything that he needed to do. And I thought that he did everything he needed to do,” he said “Would he like to have one or two shots back? Absolutely. But I think that he did his job. Our defensive core could have played better in front of him.”

Stepan said that some of the woes on the defensive side are due to injuries.

“We definitely have some injuries,” he said. “I do not want to go to much into detail. The injury bug did not help and then add in the inexperience of players thinking that they have to do more on the ice because they really do not trust each other yet. Or also the newer players come from teams where they have to do everything. They have their own job to do now in juniors.”

Stepan said that he is hoping that the injuries are short term.

Stepan said that there could be some player movement for the Steel.

“We have some things in the works — it does not mean anything will go through” Stepan said. “But there is some interest in some of our players from other teams. We are going to lose (Nick) Wieben, (Tommy) Michelsen and (Nate) Looft to Chippewa Falls’ main training camp in two weeks for one to two weeks. So that opens up three spots for some guys to jump in and see what they can do.”

Stepan added that scoring is a concern.

“We do not have the firepower that we did last season but from the potential standpoint we are deeper,” he said. “We have the potential to have more balanced lines than last year.”

The Steel get a return match at home Friday night when they play Alexandria at 7:10 p.m. at the New Ulm Civic Center.

“I had two completely different line-ups last weekend in each game. So when we do get guys on the same page anything can happen.”