WILLMAR — After more than a month of playing away from home, the Willmar WarHawks got their first game Saturday night at the Willmar Civic Center Arena.

The WarHawks lost the home-opener 6-1 to the New Ulm Steel in an NA3HL game.

New Ulm (3-2-0-0) led 2-0 in the first period before the WarHawks (4-3-0-1) scored.

Dylan Svoboda, a forward from Austin, scored his sixth goal of the season at 17:35. Assists went to Brandon Holt and Eli Slagter. Slagter is a left wing from Willmar. Holt is from Madison Heights, Mich.

The Steel made it 3-1 through two periods and then scored three times in the third period to put the game away.

The WarHawks return to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Breezy Point to play the Breezy Point North Stars. The North Stars are 3-6-1-0 in the NA3HL’s West Division, behind the first-place North Iowa Bulls (9-1-0-0), the Granite City Lumberjacks (6-1-0-0) and Willmar and ahead of New Ulm and the Alexandria Blizzard (3-3-0-0).

Willmar then plays Oct. 25 at Alexandria before returning home to play the Blizzard at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Willmar Civic Center Arena.

 

New Ulm 6, Willmar 1

New Ulm\u00092\u00091\u00093 — 6
Willmar\u00091\u0009\u00090 — 1
FIRST PERIOD – (1) NU: Gimberlin 1 (Parks, Danaev), 8:01 (2) NU: Bauman 2 (Savelkoul, Halverson), 8:32 (3) W: Svoboda 6 (Holt, Slagter), 17:35. Penalties: Espenson, NU, (interference, minor) 12:40; Gimberlin, NU, (boarding, minor) 14:49; Ginger, W, (tripping minor), 19:45.
SECOND PERIOD – (4) Gimberlin 2 (Lillico, Stormer), 10:29 (PP). Penalties: Santarelli, W, (cross-checking, minor) 6:24; Sunderland, W, (tripping, minor) 10:23; Ginger, W, (kneeing, minor), 11:36; Looft, NU, (roughing, minor) 14:36; Minch, W, (roughing, minor), 14:36.
THIRD PERIOD – (5) NU: Danaev 5 (Bauman, Gimberlin), 13:10 (6) NU: Zowin 1 (Evans), 14:57 (7) NU: Dorn 1 (gimberlin, Tsouroullis), 17:40. Penalties: Bauman, NU, (tripping, minor) 3:27; Epsenson, NU, (holding, minor) 9:45; Zowin, NU (spearing major, spearing game misconduct) 18:56.
GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS – NU: Raymond (42 shots-41 saves) … W: Banks (37 shots, 31 saves).