Brecklyn Harrison scored the lone goal for the Eagles unassisted.

New Ulm goalie Ava Schmid stopped 35 of 38 shots on goal.

Despite the loss that dropped the young Eagles to 0-3 on the season, New Ulm head coach Derek Johnson said that he is seeing improvement each game.

“Even though we came out with a loss, I felt that we played a pretty solid game,” he said. “I liked our effort tonight.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Madalynn Olson (11) looks towards the net and prepares to shoot during the second period of Thursday night’s Big South Conference girls hockey game against Luverne at the New Ulm Civic Center.

The Eagles, who host South St. Paul Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Sleepy Eye Ice Arena, and the Cardinals, were scoreless after the first period before Batavia got her first goal — an unassisted one — at the 4:45 mark for a 1-0 lead.

“We were scoreless after the first period and actually I felt that we controlled most of the play in the offensive zone,” Johnson said.

But the Eagles — as they have so far this season — failed to mount any offensive pressure as they totaled just 17 shots on goal compared to 38 for Luverne.

“We need more shots [on goal],” Johnson said. “We only got three or four shots in that first period so we need to get pucks to the middle and we need more shots.”

The Eagles were also 0-for-2 on the power play in the game.

“We definitely need to work on [the power play] in practice,” Johnson added. “That needs more improvement for sure.”

Batavia’s two goals in the third period — one of them unassisted — lifted Luverne to a 3-0 lead before New Ulm’s Brecklyn Harazin got the Eagles on the board with an unassisted goal at the 9:53 mark of the final period.

Johnson said that the team needs to address the shots on goal.

“You cannot win games when you only get three or four shots a period,” Johnson said. “But defensively we are playing well — that has definitely improved — and Ava has been playing solid all year for us in goal,” he said. “Again we have improved on the defensive side each game and we are plugging up the middle better. And I am seeing improvement on the offensive side.”