Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Jersey Haugen (6) shoots the puck while teammate Tristyn Wolner (2) clears the way during a nonconference girls hockey game against Waconia Friday at the New Ulm Civic Center.

NEW ULM — Jersey Haugen’s power-play goal with just over a minute left in the game broke a 4-4 tie and lifted the New Ulm Eagles girls hockey team to a 5-4 win over Waconia Friday night in a nonconference hockey game at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Mya Hornick recorded a hat trick for the Eagles (1-1), with Kaelynn Welsh adding a goal.

Jersey Haugen and Maddi Olson each had two assists, with Maddy Portner and Callie Haugen each adding a helper.

New Ulm goalie Ava Schmid recorded 26 saves.

Ella Schuck had two goals for the Wildcats.

“This was a game between two teams that battled back and forth,” New Ulm head coach Jeremy Reed said. “But what I am most proud of is some of the things that we worked on this week in practice.

“There were times that our forecheck was on and was creating a lot of success for us. And the other thing that we talked to the girls before the game was to get pucks on the net and who cares what they look like.”

But perhaps the most impressive thing about the Eagles’ performance Friday was their ability to come back.

New Ulm spotted Waconia lead of 2-0 early in the game and a 3-1 lead in the second period before tying the game on goals from Hornick and Welsh and then taking a 4-3 lead on Hornick’s hat-trick goal coming on a shot at the buzzer at the end of the second period.

Hornick said that being down 2-0 early, especially after an 8-0 loss to Dodge County to open the season last Saturday, didn’t deter them.

“We cannot come into this game with that mindset that we just lost,” Hornick said. “We have to keep shooting the puck and it will find its way into the net.”

Hornick said that her goal at the end of the third period was again a case of getting the puck to the net.

But Waconia would tie the game on a power-play goal at the 6:44 mark and it stayed that way until the Waconia was called for a penalty with 1:40 left in the game putting New Ulm on a power play.

The Eagles called a timeout to set up what would be the game-winning goal.

“We actually set up a faceoff play and talked about getting the puck deep and bringing it to the net,” Reed said. “But the initial thing was we had a play designed off of the faceoff and we got the puck deep and they ended up making a nice play. Super proud of the girls on the ice because that was all them.”

Reed did say that the goal that really tipped the game towards New Ulm was Welsh’s goal on an assist from Callie Haugen.

“This is her first year of being on the varsity full time — she scored her first varsity goal tonight– and that is a young line she is on and they did some really nice things.”

Reed said that Hornick’s three goals in the game was awesome work for her.

“She has that workhorse mentality,” Reed said.

New Ulm is at Luverne on Tuesday.