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Penalties plague Stars in shutout defeat to Evergreens

By Dustin Riese, Times Villager, 01/16/18, 11:00PM CST

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Begley scores twice in 3-0 DCE victory

SCHOFIELD – Coming off a tough 4-0 loss on Saturday at the hands of Neenah, the Fox Cities Stars were looking to get back on track as they hit the road Tuesday night. It was another tough opponent awaiting them on the ice as the D.C. Everest Evergreens were looking to send Fox Cities home with another defeat.

After being shut out in their last game, the Stars knew that they needed to get the offense going if they stood a chance at knocking off the Evergreens. Unfortunately for them, it was a lack of offense mixed with the inability to stay out of the penalty box that did Fox Cities in as they dropped the non-conference contest 3-0 for their second straight shut out defeat.

“It was a rough one for our team tonight,” Head Coach Chris Van Zeeland said. “The penalties owned the game tonight as we committed way too many of them. We were also unable to generate anything offensively when given the opportunity.”

If the first period was any indication of what was to be expected on the night, the Stars looked as if it was going to be a long night. The Evergreens fired an impressive 15 shots on goal in the opening period and completely dictated the tempo of the game allowing only six total shots from the Stars offense. Fortunately for Fox Cities, they had Max Gutjahr in goal as he single handedly kept things scoreless in the first period collecting all 15 saves as part of a 32 save game.

The second period was no different, as the Stars struggled on both ends of the Ice. For the second consecutive period, D.C. Everest fired double digit shots toward the goal pestering Gutjahr again with 12 more shots. One of those 12 shots found the back of the net as the Evergreens took a 1-0 lead early in the second period.

With the three-minute mark in the period just gone by, Robert O’Brien headed to the penalty area to give the Evergreens a one-man advantage. They wouldn’t disappoint. With Jacob Jakusz leading an attack into the Fox Cities end of the ice, Jakusz would find Ryan Begley who put it home for the power play goal and 1-0 lead. Despite giving D.C. Everest three one-man advantage chances, the Stars weathered the storm and only trailed 1-0 after two periods of play.

With just one period left in regulation, Fox Cities were looking for their first goal in nearly two games. With that motivation now in their mind, the Stars began to pick it up on both ends of the ice and managed to play right with the Evergreens. This biggest difference in this period was the penalty box as both teams struggled to keep 5-on-5 hockey going.

In total, ten total penalties were committed in the final period of play with five going to each team. That gave the Stars ample opportunities at the very least to get even, but Fox Cities had nothing to show for and came up empty each time.

On the other side, it was the Evergreens finding ways to capitalize despite putting up just eight shots in this period. An early powerplay goal from Begley again just under four minutes into the final period doubled the Evergreens lead 2-0 as it looked more like a 5-0 advantage.

Four minutes later, it was D.C. Everest putting the Stars away for good capitalizing on yet another power play opportunity. This time it was JJ Berdal connecting off an assist from Matt Lukasik and D.C. Everest pitched the 3-0 shutout and handed the Stars their second consecutive shut out defeat.

Davis Hackbarth chipped in with a playmaker for the Evergreens, with an assist on each goal. Michael Janke stopped 17 shots for DCE to earn the shutout, his fourth of the year.

WiPH Game Summaries