The Cardinals had a counter for every Eagles attack, however, scoring five unanswered goals in the final two periods to stay unbeaten on the season with an 8-4 win in a Big South Conference crossover boys hockey game at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Luverne (9-0) trailed until Mallachi Domagala’s power-play goal at the 14:11 mark of the second period put the Cardinals in front of the Eagles (4-4) for good.

Luverne scored again before the period ended on a goal from Will Bergman to go up 6-4 in the game.

The Cardinals put the game away in the third on an unassisted goal from Ricky Rogers at 12:37 of the third and an empty-netter by Bergman at 14:56 of the third on an assist by Mallachi Domagala.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Kayden Klein lines up a shot for what ended up being a goal in the first period of a boys hockey game against Luverne on Friday night at the New Ulm Civic Center.

“We did a good job for a while there, it was just every time we make a mistake or teams make a mistake against them, they’re very good at scoring,” Eagles head coach Ryan Neuman said. “You make a mistake, they usually find a way to put the puck in the back of the net.”

Neuman also said Luverne making odd changes and his team getting caught puck watching hurt in the end.

Eagles goalie Colton Anderson stopped 26 of the 33 shots he saw in net, while Cardinals goalie Gavin Hoven stopped 19 of 23 shots.

Carson Uecker had two goals to lead New Ulm.

Mallachi Domagala led Luverne with a goal and two assists.

Luverne went 3 for 3 on the power play, while New Ulm went 1 for 3.

“Penalty kill’s been something I’ve always kind of prided myself on,” Neuman said. “Our penalty kill is not good and it needs to get cleaned up big time.”

The Eagles were on the attack from the start, even before their first power-play chance of the night. After getting on the power play 1:27 into the game, Kayden Klein fired a wrister from the faceoff circle under Hoven for a 1-0 New Ulm lead, assisted on by Mason Buegler and Bodey Hagberg.

Luverne got a power-play goal back at 8:17 of the first period on a goal from Maddox Miller, assisted on by Rogers and Mallachi Domagala. Uecker got his first goal of the game at 13:30 of the first period on an assist from Klein and Hunter Larson to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead after one.

“Something we talked about even after the first, just letting them know we had that 2-1 lead, but letting our guys know, ‘You’re not going to keep their top line — odds are they’re gonna score at some point, and once they do, they’re gonna buzz,'” Neuman said. “Trying to keep that top line of Luverne off the scoreboard was huge, but just the mistakes and just the message is that we want to come out, jump them, keep them bottled up, and we did it early, we just couldn’t sustain it the whole game.”

Blake Sauer scored on an assist by Landyn Lais to tie the game a minute into the second period, but Jaxon Saenz had the quick answer with a goal 33 seconds later on assists from Hagberg and Brody Nordby.

Maddux Domagala kept the scoring going at 2:57 of the second period on assists from Landyn Lais and Jaxon Lais to tie the game at 3-3. Uecker scored at 13:34 of the second unassisted to put New Ulm up 4-3.

Landyn Lais was set up nicely less than two minutes later in close by Maddux Domagala to tie it up once again. Saenz tried to get another quick answer with a two-on-one opportunity less than a minute later, but his shot banged off the post.

Luverne then cashed in on its second power play of the night on Mallachi Domagala’s go-ahead goal.

“I don’t think we got tired, not practicing [Thursday] probably wasn’t a huge advantage for us, but at the end of the day, you can’t get tired in a game against one of your rivalries and somebody you’re going to see again,” Neuman said. “The positive thing is like I told our guys, ‘You showed yourself you can compete with them.’ We can go with them, we limit a few mistakes, we can beat them. We’re gonna get to play them probably two more times and the third one’s going to be the most important time in the playoffs.”

New Ulm will practice again Monday and host Mound Westonka before the holidays at 7 p.m. Tuesday.