NEW ULM — New Ulm Steel head coach Alex North said that he was happy with his team’s performance over the past weekend in the Showcase Hockey Tournament in Blaine.

The Steel went 2-1, with a 10-0 win over the Mid-Cities (Texas) Stars and a 2-0 win over the Great Falls (Montana) Americans. The Steel then fell 4-2 to the Milwaukee Power in a game where they held a 2-0 lead after three periods.

“Our team played extremely well,” Steel head coach Alex North said. “I think that they took a huge step forward in their confidence going into the rest of the regular season. We played smart, simple hockey and it worked.”

Posting two consecutive shutouts and then blanking a third team for two periods was something that North said came about with a system change that they did.

“And our third game we ran into some injury trouble — we had two players leave with injuries and we had a third player playing through an injury,” North said. “It was tough to play that third game being down three players.”

North was happy with the play of Gus Cantwell who had 6 points (three goals and three assists) as well as Nick O’Brien, who had 5 points (a goal and four assists).

North also complimented the play of Aidan Swee and Charlie Sullivan.

“Aidan Swee had a couple of huge goals for us and Charlie Sullivan played well for us.”

North said that Swee was a player who had been fighting some confidence issues early in the season.

“But he has made a statement now that he has gotten in the lineup,” North said. “He is just a hard worker on the ice and that has been our team’s MO. We are going to be the hardest working team on the ice.”

Defensively, the Steel goalies of Dixon Ehlers (30 saves on 34 shots against Milwaukee), Nolan Lacosse (19 saves in a shutout win over Great Falls) and Alex Benson (16 saves in a shutout win over the Mid-Cities Stars) played well.

It was also a three-game stretch where the Steel limited opposing teams shots on goal.

For the Showcase, New Ulm limited the three opponents to a combined 65 shots on goal while recording 81 shots on goal against the Stars, 37 against Great Falls and 27 against Milwaukee.

“That is also something that we have improved on getting pucks to the net,” North said. “It is hard to score if you do not shoot.”

North and the Steel, now 9-15-3 and just 3 points behind Willmar for the final playoff spot in the West Division, are off until Dec. 28 when they return to New Ulm after the Christmas break and prepare for their Friday, Dec. 30 home game at 7:10 p.m. against Alexandria at the New Ulm Civic Center.