Photo by Samantha Davis The New Ulm boys hockey team celebrates Kayden Klein’s goal at the end of the first period Tuesday night against Marshall in a Big South Conference matchup at the Red Baron Arena in Marshall.

By Samantha Davis

sdavis@marshallindependent.com

MARSHALL — Carson Uecker and Brody Nordby each finished with a hat trick and 5 points to lead the New Ulm boys hockey team in a 12-3 Big South Conference win against Marshall Tuesday night, marking three straight victories. The Tigers took a 2-0 lead to start the night, but the Eagles found a quick response with five straight goals and a six-goal second period, and never looked back.

Marshall’s Jacob Allen was quick to action, scoring two goals in the game’s first two minutes with the first coming off the puck drop 11 seconds in. Likewise, Nordby and Carson Uecker got the Eagles ahead by the end of the first period with two goals each.

“Just kind of our D-zone and our structure [is what got away from us]. They [New Ulm] were able to get some good rushes to make a few plays right through us,” Marshall head coach Michael Weiss said. “We have got to make sure we protect our net better than we did tonight.”

New Ulm overall outshot Marshall 36-13. Nordby and Uecker both finished with three goals and a pair of assists.

McCoy Guenther was in the net for Marshall, finishing with 24 saves, while Colten Anderson protected for New Ulm and finished with 10 saves.

Both the Tigers and Eagles entered Tuesday’s matchup off back-to-back wins, picking up some momentum as the final stretch of the regular season approaches.

Marshall finished up a six-game road trip with a big 11-1 win over Fairmont on Thursday, and followed that up with a 7-3 defeat over Worthington on Monday.

New Ulm’s two wins were shutouts, taking down Worthington 14-0 on Thursday and Redwood Valley 9-0 on Saturday.

Allen got the Tigers ahead promptly with his two goals in the first two minutes. The first came 11 seconds in right off puck drop, receiving the puck and turned around to close in toward the goalie to find the back of the net.

Allen’s second goal came not even two minutes later at the 2:04 mark after New Ulm rattled off three straight shots, assisted by Dylan Steilen and Carson Kopitski after getting ahead of the Eagles’ defense.

Yet, much time didn’t pass for New Ulm to find a quick response to tie the early score up and eventually head into intermission up by three goals.

The Eagles scored five-consecutive goals, led by Nordby and Uecker’s combined four.

Nordby got New Ulm on the board in the seventh minute with a feed from Uecker, and finished the play sending the puck into the back right of the net.

Nineteen seconds later, Uecker scored with an assist from Bobby Rewitzer before the Eagles took the lead less than a minute later with Nordby’s second goal after finding a gap through Marshall’s defense and closing in on Guenther.

The Eagles took back all offensive control and power from there to finish off the period, as the Tigers’ struggled in defensive transition.

Kayden Klein scored New Ulm’s final goal of the first period from distance, shooting the puck up high toward the top bar out from the back end of the left faceoff circle for an Eagles’ 5-2 advantage.

The Eagles kept their foot on the gas through the second period and the remainder of the night, scoring two more goals in the first four minutes coming out of the first intermission. Melvin Sellner scored the first of the two nearly identical to Marshall’s first of the night, eight seconds in off puck drop. Hunter Larson scored the second goal at the 3:49 mark, building New Ulm’s lead to 7-2.

Marshall found some rhythm going again on the offensive end with a few consecutive shot attempts, before Morgan Rokeh rebounded off Brenden Price’s shot from the opposite side into the back of the net to cut into a 7-3 deficit.

But, the Eagles once again came back hard taking the next four goals to end the period for an 11-3 lead going into the third. Braxton Rahe, Nordby, Larson and Uecker accounted for the goals.

New Ulm scored once more in the final period by Josh Forstner to end the night.

Marshall (4-11) and New Ulm (8-6) will meet again tomorrow, this time at the New Ulm Civic Center at 7:15 p.m. Thursday’s matchup is a rescheduled game that was originally postponed from Dec. 9.

“It helps a little bit [playing a team back-to-back]. We know what we need to fix and what we can do better, and now they’re [New Ulm] going to know what they need to do better, too,” Weiss said. “So, hopefully we can play a little bit better in our own net and help our goalie out.”