NEW ULM – Three years ago, New Ulm Steel raised eyebrows at NA3HL by winning 17 straight league games.

This Friday night, the Steel host the Granite City Lumberjacks, who enter their New Years Eve reunion with the Steel on a 22-game winning streak. The puck falls at 7:10 p.m. at the New Ulm Civic Center.

In fact, Granite City comes in with a stunning 26-1 season record.

Their only loss came to Mason City on October 1 by a score of 2-1.

And the Lumberjacks dominated their opponents 158-36.

“They play a good hard physical game”, Steel coach Erick Bromberg said. “They’re good on both sides of the ice – they just come towards you in waves and they defend themselves really well. “

And they have five players who have scored 10 or more goals this season, led by Ben Anderson with 18 goals and Kullan Dalkawa with 16.

Three years ago, Bromberg was a player of that Steel team which had 17 consecutive wins.

“I’m a little biased – I felt this record would never be broken”, said Bromberg. “But now I’m eating my words. Now he’s broken and he’s been broken by five right now. It’s pretty impressive, especially for our (West) division. It showed the Showcase that our division is the best in the NA3HL. We won two of three and the other teams went undefeated.

Bromberg said that in a winning streak, it’s just the confidence of knowing you’re going to win by going into that game.

“Right now, Granite has it all – they’ve got the tools and they’ve got that swagger to them,” said Bromberg.

Right now, the Steel (10-19) have just 8 points in fourth and final playoff spot in the West behind 14-11 Alexandria.

“There are a lot of seasons left and now the message to our kids is that they have to be Road Warriors,” said Bromberg. “If you look at our schedule, we only play one home game in February. We arrived at

Mason City then Granite City back to back. Not to be swept away is huge. Friday’s game will be a good indicator for us.

The Friday Night Game Sponsor is the Liquor Mart.