In the consolation game of the Admirals Cup, the Fond du Lac Cardinals faced the De Pere Voyageurs at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. The Voyageurs took hold of an early lead that they never gave up, winning the game 6-1 for third place in the tournament.
Just two minutes and 12 seconds into the game, Brett Foth put the first point on the board for the Voyageurs. After a shot by Taylor Anderson ricocheted off of Cardinals goaltender, William Shober, Joe Hofer tried to put it in net before Foth took it home.
A short 28 seconds later, junior captain Will Reabe scored off a snipe from the top of the circle, extending the Voyageurs lead to two goals.
The referees assessed an interference penalty to De Pere’s Emmett Kulick with 12:15 left in the first period, which gave the Cardinals a chance for redemption. Michael Wilson took a shot that slid under the Voyageurs’ netminder, Brett Guerts, but not over the goal line. Bailey Koenigs finished the play, and put the Cardinals on the board for the first time that afternoon. Ian Tess-Wanat also earned an assist on the play.
De Pere came into the second period strong, scoring just a minute and 34 seconds into the period.
Alec Call took the puck up the right side from the blue line, cut across the goal and took a shot on Shober who deflected the puck the opposite direction right to Tanner Decker’s stick. He backhanded it right into the open net over the top of the outstretched goalie.
Penalties plagued the next few minutes of play, but neither team could capitalize on early powerplay opportunities.
With 4:07 left in the period, the refs sent Chase Koenigs to the box on a head-contact call, which led to a De Pere goal by Reabe, his second of the afternoon.
The third period found a pair of goals for the Voyageurs, Decker from Reabe and Matt Willems from Zach Langer, for a final score of 6-1 in favor of De Pere.