NEW ULM - New Ulm avenged a loss to Willmar at the best time possible, eliminating the Cardinals from the Section 3A playoffs with a 9-1 victory on Thursday.
The Cards defeated New Ulm 3-2 on Jan. 24, but it was clear early that the Eagles weren’t going to drop another.
New Ulm’s Brandon Helget scored four goals and Jon Kopacek found the net twice as the Eagles improved to 16-8-2. They play Hutchinson in the section semifinals on Saturday at Gustavus.
The Cardinals finished the season 6-21, losing eight of their last nine.
“It was one of those games,” said Willmar head coach Jamie Hagen. “Going into the year, we didn’t have a lot of guys with varsity experience. This was a tough year for the few seniors we do have but I think things are looking up for the guys in the future.”
Willmar’s Eli Slagter scored his team’s only goal in the second period on an assist from Cooper Delp. It was Slagter’s first varsity goal.
New Ulm 9, Willmar 1
Willmar (6-21) 0 1 0 - 1
New Ulm (16-8-2) 4 4 1 - 10
FIRST PERIOD – N: Brandon Mehlhop (Alex Stark) 6:10 … N: Ethan Kraus (Brandon Helget, Colin Huffman) 10:24 pp … N: Helget (Huffman, Wyatt Peterson) 11:23 pp … N: Kyle Van Name (Alex Sellner) 13:08 sh
SECOND PERIOD – N: Helget (Stark, Ethan Kraus) 3:58 … N: Jon Kopacek (Jared Beltz) 5:53 … W: Eli Slagter (Cooper Delp) 6:31 … N: Helget 6:41 … N: Kopacek (Mehlhop) 12:25
THIRD PERIOD – N: Helget 4:20
GOALIE SAVES – Willmar: Nick Revier 10; Jacob Anderson (2nd period) 12 … New Ulm: Matt Berkner 27
