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It goes on the record as a 3-3 tie, but for the purposes of the Holiday Hockey Classic, it’s a shootout victory for the Fergus Falls Otters over the New Ulm Eagles. The Otters got shootout goals from Kellen Stenstrom and Sam Dirkman, and senior goaltender Ben Swanson stopped four of the five shooters for the Eagles.
All six goals in the game were scored in the first period and all three Fergus Falls goals came on the power play.
“I didn’t like our compete level in the first period, but the power play looked like we had worked on it all break,” said Head Coach Mike Donaghue.
Dirkman gave the Otters the early lead with their first power play goal at 2:44, assisted by Kellen Stenstrom and Brayden Nelson. At 6:13, New Ulm tied the game on a goal from Taylor Hansen, assisted by Dawson Kraus. Kraus then gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead at 8:10 with an assist from Jack Albrecht. Fergus Falls pulled even on Leighton Buckmeier’s power play goal, setup by Stenstrom and Colin Becker at 12:23. At 15:57 Bryer Lange scored from Nick Zins and the visitors led 3-2. Stenstrom made it 3-3 with a power play goal at 16:40, assisted by Jack Welde and Gavin Goepferd.
Swanson stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced in the Fergus Falls net. New Ulm goalie, Bryer Hoffman, made 25 saves on 28 Otter shots on goal.
Fergus Falls will face Fort Frances at 7:00pm Wednesday. Fort Frances lost to Detroit Lakes 4-1 in the other varsity contest on Tuesday.