File photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Brecken Neuman skates down the ice during a Big South Conference boys hockey game against Fairmont on Jan. 14.

NEW ULM — The Waseca boys hockey team came into their Big South Conference meeting with New Ulm Thursday averaging 8.4 goals a game in conference action.

While they did not make that average, they had enough offense to come away with a win.

Hunter Anderson recorded a hat trick as the Bluejays (13-1, 18-3) topped New Ulm 6-1 at the New Ulm Civic Center.

Keaton Weston had the lone goal for the Eagles, who fell to 10-12 overall and 7-5 in conference play.

Waseca goalie Carter Martens stopped 26 of 27 New Ulm shots while Eagles goalie Graham Glaser stopped 27 of 33 Waseca shots.

“We have to figure out how to put the puck in the net,” New Ulm head coach Ryan Neuman said. “It has been a struggle. That first eight or nine minutes of the first period we controlled the play, but we let down and they scored a couple late and it went from there.”

Griffin Storey opened the scoring for Waseca before Anderson scored his first goal on the power play.

It was the first of three power-play goals in the game for Waseca.

Anderson made it 3-0 to open the second period before Weston got New Ulm on the board to cut the lead to 3-1.

But Anderson got his hat trick for a 4-1 Waseca lead after two periods.

“We tried not to chase them defensively – we wanted to be physical with them – and don’t let them have open looks at the net,” Neuman said. “We gave them to many open looks and they capitalized on them”

Power play goals in the third period from Jude Gehring and Jackson Tesch closed out the win for Waseca.

Neuman said the three power play goals by Waseca and the Eagles going 0-4 on power plays including not scoring on a 5-on-3 advantage late in the game is cause for concern.

“Our special teams in general — we could not score on power plays and giving up goals when we are in the [penalty] box,” he said. “We have worked on those things quite a bit. We have to figure something out.”

New Ulm closes out their regular season at home Saturday night when they host Southwest Minnesota Christian at 7 p.m. at the New Ulm Civic Center.