NEW ULM — Kayden Larson’s goal 14:13 into the third period cut Hutchinson’s lead to 4-3, but the Tigers survived a 6-4 New Ulm advantage with 51 seconds left in the game to come back. . They defeated the Eagles 4-3 in a non-conference men’s hockey game Tuesday night at the New Ulm Civic Center.
Brody Nordby and Austin Uecker each scored for the Eagles, but the Eagles fell to 7-2 on the season. Ian Bruderie, Brecken Neumann and Breyer Lang each had an assist.
The Tigers improved to 2-5 with goals from Manny Pierce, Charlie Renner, Nathan Sword and Toren Miller.
In the game, New Ulm goaltender Breyer Hoffman stopped 16 of Hutchinson’s 20 shots, and Tigers goaltender Lucas Heilman saved 24 of New Ulm’s 27 shots.
Ulm’s new coach, Ryan Newman, said it was a game in which his team played in spurts.
“We’ve had some really good times and spurts, and we’ve had some really bad times.” He said. “And outside of the last seven minutes the game started, Hatch outplayed us. But you can’t discount a team and just expect to win.”
And it was a game in which the Eagles, who return to the Big South Conference on Friday night at Windham, played an all-game upset.
After Manny Pierce’s power-play goal made it 1-0 in the first period, sophomore forward Brody Nordby tied it eight minutes into the game.
The Tigers took a 2-1 lead on a “puck ruck” when Charles Renner’s shot near the net was deflected by a New Ulm defenseman and Hoffman gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead.
New Ulm tied the score again at 2-2 with a late penalty and a goal by Uecker 4:33 into the second period.
The Tigers took a 3-2 lead when Nathan Sword beat Hoffman on a breakaway less than four minutes after Uecker’s goal.
“We were in a hurry, so we didn’t rush it.” Mr. Newman said. “Our defense assumed we were going to go on offense – we made a bad change – we made a bad change and we gave up on the breakaway there. Mental mistake and , it’s just something we have to figure out.”
Tauren Miller’s goal at 8:27 of the third period gave the Tigers a 4-2 lead.
However, at 14:15, Larson deflected Lang’s shot and cut the lead to 4-3.
New Ulm then pulled Hoffman 5-on-4 with just over a minute left in the game and made it 6-on-4 on a Tigers penalty with 51 seconds left in the game, but could not get the tying goal.
“I think I hit the pipe three times at the end.” Mr. Newman said. “We put pressure on, but as I told the team, ‘We can’t wait until the end of the game to get ahead of the other team.’