Coach Roy Nystrom felt the Albert Lea High School boys’ hockey team was allowing too many good scoring chances recently, so he had a little talk with the Tigers before Thursday’s Big Nine game against Winona.

&uot;Basically, I more or less indicated we had to play defense, which has been lacking in our last several games,&uot; said Nystrom. &uot;We’ve been giving up way too many golden opportunities to the opposition.&uot;

And how the did the Tigers respond to the challenge?

&uot;It’s difficult to gauge,&uot; said Nystrom. &uot;Winona barely had the puck.&uot;

The Tigers broke loose with their highest scoring output of the season, blanking the Winhawks 8-0 at the City Arena.

It was the first one-sided game for the Tigers since the season opener against Windom and evened their record at 6-6 overall and 3-3 in the Big Nine. Of the Tigers’ six losses, four were by one goal, and they led in five of them.

&uot;It is kind of nice to have a game like this,&uot; said Nystrom. &uot;We did what we were supposed to do. We went out and played hard. We had three pretty good periods.&uot;

They also had balanced scoring, with two goals by Egan Mattson and one each from Tony Dugstad, Cory Ellertson, Dustin Trail, Wade Westland, Josh Tubbs and Casey Schumaker. Collecting assists were Jon Breuer, Schumaker, Trail, Adam Boelter, Ellertson, Westland, Brett Frydenlund and Lucas Flugum.

Matt Tubbs was in the net for Albert Lea. Shots on goal were 37-9 in favor of the Tigers. Albert Lea had five penalties, Winona four.

The Tigers have a big week coming up with games against Owatonna, Rochester Lourdes and Rochester Century.

&uot;Our focus has to be on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,&uot; said Nystrom. &uot;It’s Tuesday first, we can’t look ahead of anybody, but it will be one tough week.&uot;