NEW ULM — The New Ulm Steel’s next home game is not until New Year’s Eve when they host Granite City for a 7:10 p.m. puck drop at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Prior to that time, the Steel will play Wednesday night in Breezy Point against the Minnesota Loons before gearing up for the Showcase Classic December 20-22 at the Blaine Super Rinks.

There, the Steel will play three games in three days before taking off for Christmas until they return to New Ulm for practice on December 27.

The Steel will play the Austin Ice Bats at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, December 20 on Super Rink 4.

On Tuesday, they meet Danbury, Connecticut at 12:15 p.m. on Rink 7 before meeting the Milwaukee Power at 12 p.m. on Wednesday on Rink 7.

Steel head coach Erick Bromberg said that the Showcase is an endurance contest.

“Three games in three days is hard on a player’s body and it will show us where we are at,” he said. “And it will show us what we need to improve on and it will also show us who is willing to come to battle every day.”

Bromberg said that the players do look forward to the Showcase Tournament.

“It is a good stepping stone in the break — it shows who is good and who is not so good team-wise. This tournament shows how strong our [West] division is. The previous years, our division has won pretty much every single game that they have played. And we want to continue that as a team and as a division.”

Bromberg said that the Austin Ice Bats, based out of Austin, Texas, are a new team in the NA3HL.

“Danbury has some skilled players and Milwaukee will be a grind for our third game in as many days,” Bromberg said. “Our goal is to win at least two of the three games.”

Bromberg said that the Steel roster may see one more player come in before it is pretty well set for the rest of the season.

The Steel did lose forward Bauer Barry to the NAHL [North American Hockey League] Aberdeen franchise as well as defenseman Parker Dorn to the Fairbanks, Alaska Ice Dogs, also of the NAHL off of their roster.

“Dorn is called up to the NAHL through Christmas. I am happy for Dorn — he is a great leader and team guy and he deserves it,” Bromberg said. “I think that we still have a chance at the playoffs. But we have a lot of work to make up for in the second half of the season.”