Austin Uecker had a goal and an assist to lead the Eagles, who end their season with a 23-7 mark. Landon Barstad and Talan Helget each had a goal for New Ulm, while Kaden Larson added two assists and Bryer Lang and Ian Brudelie each had an assist.

Northfield (23-5-2) got goals from Ty Frank, Kam Kaiser, Michael Steward and Cayden Monson, with Monson, Kaiser and Frank each adding an assist. Griffin Kennelly and Christian Whiteman also had assists for the Raiders.

Thursday’s game saw more of the highlights New Ulm fans were accustomed to seeing this season after Wednesday’s rough 8-1 loss to second-seeded Warroad in the opening round of the state tourney. One highlight in particular Thursday saw Uecker break through the defense in the second period to bury his 39th goal of the season, tying the game up at 2-all at the 15:00 mark on an assist from Brudelie.

This came after Barstad scored a power-play goal on feeds from Larson and Lang at 4:09 of the second to have the Eagles down 2-1.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Kayden Klein (20) and Casey Koop (12) battle Northfield’s Griffin Kennelly (21) and Michael Steward (9) for the puck behind the New Ulm net during a Class A State Boys Hockey Tournament semifinals game on Thursday at Aldrich Arena in Maplewood.

Battling back from a two-goal deficit was what Eagles head coach Ryan Neuman knew his players had in them.

“We battled today and even being down 2-0, to come back, it just kind of shows this group, where they’ve been all year,” Neuman said. “They work hard every day in practice to get better, each and every one of them, even the ones that don’t play as [much]. It’s stuff that we just talked about, the ones that are in practice every day, they’re making our top guys better in practice every day, too. It’s a total team effort from 20 guys and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Steward got the Raiders going early on while shorthanded as he took a pass away and broke free to deposit a top-shelf goal at 4:13 of the first.

After Barstad got caught elbowing for a five-minute major penalty, the Raiders jumped on the attack again as Kaiser scored on the power play at the 10:22 mark.

Right at the end of the period, however, Monson committed a major penalty for head contact to set the Eagles up nicely to start the second.

The Eagles used that power play to get on the board on Barstad’s goal before Uecker got his breakaway goal to tie the game late in the period.

But the Raiders were quick to break the tie as Monson scored 46 seconds after Uecker to give Northfield a 3-2 lead heading into the third.

A snap shot by Frank at 5:31 of the third put the Raiders up 4-2. Helget scored from the slot at the 10:07 mark on assists from Uecker and Larson, giving Helget his second goal of the state tournament and having New Ulm down 4-3.

The Eagles pulled goalie Bryer Hoffmann in the final minute but were unable to get off any clean shots as the Raiders held on to advance to Saturday’s consolation finals against Orono.

Hoffmann finished with 26 saves, while Northfield goalie Trey Shimota had 16.

After Warroad’s top line wore New Ulm down on Wednesday, the Eagles picked up their energy on Thursday and made a game of it.

“It’s the state tournament, so I don’t think fatigue was a huge thing,” Neuman said. “Obviously it’s a quick turnaround. And the boys, we got them home early last night, we didn’t stay for the late game, got them back to the hotel and got them in their room so they could watch it on TV and get them some rest. The team went for a good morning walk this morning, got them up out of bed, but I thought they poured it all out [today] and played a hell of a hockey game.”

The Eagles graduate eight seniors this season, including the program’s all-time points leader in Uecker (204 career points).

“This whole group from that senior class and junior class, I’ve coached a lot of them since they’ve been squirts, with my kid [Brecken] being involved as a junior this year,” Neuman said. “And being around that senior group and coaching them through squirts and PeeWees and helping out at bantams with skills nights, so I’ve been around these guys.

“It’s going to be a tough pill to swallow to not see them at the rink every day like I have for the past 9, 10 years here. But they left a legacy behind, and as a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”