One power-play goal and another goal 16 seconds later was enough to lift the Delano Tigers to a 3-2 win over New Ulm in a nonconference girls hockey game.

The Eagles (4-18-2) killed off a 5-on-3 power play in the second period but were called for six penalties total in the game, four in the second period.

“All of our momentum got taken away when we started to take penalties,” New Ulm head coach Derek Johnson said. “Then it just put us back on our heels. Penalty would expire, but then they’d have the momentum and we just would take another penalty, so we never really found that we were able to get our momentum back after taking penalty after penalty in the second period.”

The Eagles got on the board on a power-play goal from Lily Kral at 8:21 of the first, assisted by Madalyn Olson and Abby Forstner. Forstner fired the shot from the point, which Kral was able to tip in.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Abby Forstner fires a shot at the net that was tipped in by Lily Kral for a goal during the first period of a nonconference girls hockey game against Delano on Thursday at the New Ulm Civic Center.

“I thought we did come out pretty strong in the first period,” Johnson said. “I thought we worked the puck well, we got the puck moving side to side, got her moving. I thought we had a lot of scoring chances, but second period came in and we started making too many mistakes. We started to take too many penalties, we just started to throw the puck kind of out into space, hoping that one of our girls would get there. But they’re quick, they beat us to the puck.”

Delano (9-15) got the goal back on an unassisted score by Avery Thompson at 15:28 of the first, tying it up after one period.

Eagles goalie Ava Brennan was solid in net with 42 saves, with her only real trouble coming in a penalty-crowded second period that saw the Eagles called for roughing, holding, interference and body checking. The first penalty of the period hurt the Eagles as Delano ended up scoring on it at 5:24 of the second when Kaelyn Wittwer assisted on a goal by Aliana Pettit for a 2-1 lead. Just 16 seconds later, Wittwer got another assist as Maci Geyen scored.

“We’ve been trying to put an emphasis on blocking shots, try to alleviate the pressure off of Ava,” Johnson said. “For the most part, she played a solid game. She made a lot of great saves that a lot of goalies probably would have found in the back of the net. She probably would have liked that third goal back, but I think she was screened a little bit, and the girl put it right in the right spot.”

Trailing 3-1 after two and unable to find success early in the third, Olson took the puck in close on a 1-on-1 breakaway and snapped it in the back of the net for a short-handed goal at 13:11 of the third.

With a little momentum back on their side, Kral had a backhanded pass from below the goal line to Callie Haugen in close, but the shot was knocked away with a little more than two minutes left. Johnson took a timeout with 1:54 left, but the Eagles were unable to get a clean shot off again as the Tigers survived.

Delano goalie Sydney Ross finished with 24 saves. Delano committed just two penalties in the game.

“For the year, we’ve done pretty well killing off penalties, and then it does take us a shift or two to get back momentum, but tonight that shift or two, we took another penalty and that kind of put us back on ours heels,” Johnson said.

New Ulm awaits Section 3A playoffs next, which begin Feb. 5.