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Eagles pull away at the end

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Evelyn Sellner scores a goal during the first period of a Big South Conference girls’ hockey game against Marshall on Thursday at the New Ulm Civic Center.

NEW ULM — At the end of the second period of the New Ulm High School-Marshall girls’ hockey game Thursday night, New Ulm had outshot the Tigers 39-4.

On the scoreboard, the Eagles held a slim 2-1 lead.

But third-period goals from Julia Helget and Afton Hulke — Helget’s on a power play and Hulke’s coming on an empty Tigers net with 51 seconds left in the game — lifted New Ulm to a 4-1 win in Big South Conference play.

Malorie Anderson and Evie Sellner scored the other goals for New Ulm, both coming in the first period.

Hulke and Maddie O’Connor each had an assist as New Ulm outshot Marshall 49-10 in the contest.

Eagles’ goaltender Ava Brennen had 11 saves.

“Offensively it was a pretty dominating performance on our part,” Eagles coach Kirsten Faber said. “I like the way that we started in the first period [outshooting Marshall 21-1 and scoring two goals]. We gave up one shot and that was a soft one. I liked the intensity that we played with and the way that we moved the puck. We had a little bit of a letdown in the second period when they scored but we finished the job in the third [period].”

Goals from Malorie Anderson and Evie Sellner three minutes apart had New Ulm ahead 2-0 before the Tigers’ Tessa Gannot beat Brennen to cut the lead to 2-1 at the 5:11 mark of the second period.

Faber said that leading 2-1 after the second 17 minutes despite dominating them in shots on goal was a case of letting them back in the game.

“That gave them a little bit of energy and we took our foot off of the gas pedal — they fought back,” she said,

The Eagles got some breathing room in the third period when Julia Helget scored on a power-play at the 4:03 mark of the third period for a 3-1 lead.

The Tigers were then forced to pull their goalie for an extra attacker with 1:12 left in the game and Hulke capitalized when she fired a shot from center ice for a goal with under a minute left.

“Big conference and section win for us,” Faber said. “We have wins over Luverne and Marshall now in the books.”

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