NEW ULM — There is a little more breathing room at the top of the Big South Conference girls’ hockey standings.

Malorie Anderson’s goal at 11:51 mark of the second period broke a 3-3 tie and New Ulm goaltender Ava Brennan held off Luverne the rest of the game as New Ulm increased its lead to two games in conference play over the Cardinals with a 4-3 win on Tuesday.

Afton Hulke, Emma Brudelie and Julia Helget all added goals and all of their goals came in the first period when New Ulm grabbed a 3-1 lead.

Maddi O’Connor, Helget, Evie Sellner, Brudelie, Hulke and Brooke Arneson each had an assist.

Brennan stopped 29 of 31 Luverne shots in the game as the Eagles improved to 9-1 in the Big South Conference and 10-2 overall. The Cardinals fell to 7-2 in conference action and 9-4 overall.

The Eagles, who defeated Luverne 4-1 on Friday, took a 2-0 lead early in the first period.

Hulke beat Cardinals goalie Cheyenne Schultz at the 6:42 mark when she put a rebound by Schultz for a 1-0 lead.

A little more than two minutes later with the Cardinals on a power play, Emma Brudelie scored a shorthanded goal for a 2-0 lead.

The Cardinals came back to cut the lead in half on a Kamryn Van Batavia goal before the Eagles regained the two-goal lead on a power-play goal off of the stick of Helget. It was her seventh goal of the season and moved the Eagles to a 3-1 lead after the first 17 minutes.

But the Cardinals used a strong second period to tie the game on a Mallory Nelson power-play goal and Peyton Behr’s rebound goal at the 9:38 mark.

Anderson broke the tie and scored the eventual game-winner when she recorded her seventh goal of the season at the 11:51 mark.

New Ulm is at Worthington on Thursday.