NP floor hockey team gaining momentum

After an early-season setback to the defending state champion, the Trojans’ floor hockey team are continuing to improve their overall game. “Overall, I like where we are at and I feel confident this team can make a push down the stretch to compete for another state tournament berth and hopefully compete for another state title, said coach Jeremy Kalal.

At 5-1, the Trojans travel to East Ridge High School today, Thursday, Feb. 8, to face South Washington County. Tuesday, Feb. 13, the Trojans will host Stillwater at 4:30 p.m. in the New Prague Community Center gym.

Trojans 12, South Suburban 4 New Prague took a period to take off but finally did so in the second period of the Feb. 3 contest in New Prague.

“We led 4-0 after the first but it felt like it should have been way more than that, coach Jeremy Kalal said. “We started really slow against a team we expected to come out strong against, but it took us the entire first period to finally connect on some of our chances. We had tons of scoring chances in the first period, but just couldn’t connect on many.”

New Prague’s Tryston Seger finished the game with four goals and an assist. Elliot Soukup scored three goals and had an assist. Carter Tupy added two goals for New Prague while Ryan Swenson, Brady Nelson and Lorelai Hamre added a goal. She also assisted on two goals.

New Prague allowed 28 shots on goal, but goalie Landon Malecha was solid. “Our goalie made some amazing saves and probably played one of his best games yet,” Kalal said.

Trojans 9, Shakopee/Chan/Chaska/PL 1 The Trojans jumped to an early lead and then turned their attention to the finer points of their game while claiming the win Jan. 31.

“Shakopee is down this year so it was nice for us to get our JV players some varsity experience,” coach Jeremy Kalal said. “Our varsity players really did a nice job today. They played well and worked on some fundamentals rather than scoring as many goals as they could.”

The Trojans built a 5-0 lad by the end of the first period. They led 7-zip after two periods and closed out the game with two goals in the final period.

New Prague enjoyed balanced scoring from eight players. Logan Bremel led New Prague with two goals and an assist. Bobbi Starr and Tryston Seger both had a goal and an assist. Ryan Swenson, Brady Nelson, Lorelei Hamre, Elliot Soukup and Luke Ryburn all scored goals for NPHS.

New Prague’s defense was solid in the contest. Goalie Landon Malecha faced only 15 shots.