Photo by Travis Rosenau
New Ulm’s Maddy Portner (7) skates with the puck during a Big South Conference girls hockey game with Marshall on Tuesday night at the New Ulm Civic Center.

NEW ULM — Brooklyn Mauch recorded a hat trick as the Marshall Tigers blanked New Ulm 4-0 Tuesday night in Big South Conference girls hockey at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Ava Kolander added the other Tigers goal. Mauch also added an assist with Peyton Demuth and Mia Wichman also getting helpers.

New Ulm goaltender Ava Brennan stopped 39 of 42 Marshall shots while Tigers goalie Lily Stelter stopped all 15 Eagles shots.

“I do not think that we had our best night tonight,” New Ulm head coach Jeremy Reed said as the Eagles fell to 9-11 overall and 2-5 in conference play. “I just told the girls that it was an improvement from when we played them earlier in the season [an 8-1 defeat] but we did not have our best night — we lacked energy, we lacked effort and we lacked a lot of teamwork.”

And while the Tigers (19-2, 10-0) dominated on the scoreboard, they also kept the Eagles buried in their own defensive zone for most of the game.

“It is one of those things when we are not moving our feet, that is going to happen,” Reed said. “And our sticks were in the air and not on the ice and we were not filling lanes.”

Marshall got on the board at the 5:27 mark of the first period. The Tigers pressured New Ulm in their defensive zone before Mauch got her first of three goals on the night.

Marshall then added two power play goals in the second period when Kolander made it 2-0 at the 5:52 mark with Mauch getting the assist.

Less than two minutes later with Marshall on another power play, Mauch beat Brennan for a 3-0 cushion.

“Penalties take a lot out of us,” Reed said. “It takes a lot out of us — it is hard to kill penalties just like it is hard playing defense.”

The Eagles, who host Luverne on Thursday before playing Minnesota River Monday in Sleepy Eye, had a chance to get on the board early in the third period when they had a 5-on-3 advantage for over a minute but failed to score.

New Ulm still had a one-man advantage for 35 seconds but failed to score and also gave up a short-handed goal to Mauch for her hat trick and a 4-0 lead.

“We did not take care of the puck on the power play,” Reed said. “We were not precise with the puck — we just kind of threw it around and we threw the puck around all night. We have to get better on Thursday when we host Luverne.”

Reed was also disappointed in his team having only 15 shots on goal all game.

“In the third period there were times when we were going in on 2-on-1s and we are skating the puck in the corner instead of driving to the net with it. It is disappointing because of the way this club had been playing.”