WAUPUN – The Fox Cities Stars had a lot to play for Tuesday night as the final game of the Badgerland Conference game of the season was on the Horizon. With the conference tournament set for next week, the Stars had a chance to grab the top seed in the tournament as they needed to win and hope for some help along the way.

Currently sitting in the No. 3 spot in the conference, the Stars were up for a huge test traveling to Waupun who occupied the No. 2 seed heading into the matchup. The only thing that was decided prior to this game, was that each team would be hosting their first conference tournament game, but everything else remained uncertain.

With both teams very much in line to get the No. 1 overall seed, this game was certainly setting up to be a classic battle. Unfortunately for the Stars, they were never able to find their footing and fell to the Warriors 5-0. Head Coach Chris Van Zeeland on the loss.

“Terrible loss for us tonight,” he said. “We had a good game plan in place heading into the game, but we failed to execute it. That cost us dearly tonight.”

It took a while for the scoring to get started as both Max Gutjahr and Caleb Sauer were strong in goal early. With the Warriors beginning to control things near the midway point in the first period, Waupun would finally capitalize to grab the lead for good. Just past the eight-minute mark, the Warriors mounted an attack with Caleb Baxter leading the power play attack. He played the puck to Colin Holz in the Stars end of the ice. With the defense beginning to close, Holz showed great awareness finding Carson Schramm for the 1-0 lead which was the score after one period of play.

With a one-goal advantage, it was the Warriors continuing their offensive pressure as Gutjahr was on his toes all night. With the three-minute mark just past in the second period, it was the Warriors adding to their lead. Holz found himself in the middle of another attack, this time with both teams at even strength. Holz would play the puck to Baxter who buried it for the 2-0 lead, Carter Flegner was credited for the second assist on the play.

Down by two goals, the Stars defense began to tighten up as they slowed the game down drastically. It wasn’t until the 14-minute mark in the second period where the next goal was scored. Holz was at it again, but this time he found himself on the receiving end of an assist taking the Cam Beek pass to make things 3-0 after two periods of play.

Down by three goals and with so much riding on this game, Fox Cities was looking to do anything they could offensively in hopes of finding some kind of momentum. Unfortunately for them, nothing would work as they remained scoreless on the board. The Warriors on the other hand had no trouble finding what worked offensively as they looked to build on their big advantage.

It was another fast start in the final period of hockey as less than five minutes went by before the Warriors were in the Stars zone yet again. Even being down a man in this situation, the duo of Holz and Baxter proved to be too much as Baxter picked up a short-handed goal to extend the lead to 4-0. Waupun would a fifth and final goal with less than three minutes remaining as Malachi Buchholz picked up that goal to push the Warriors past the Stars 5-0.

With the loss, the Stars await their fate on the conference tournament as they will be either the No.3 or No.4 seed hosting either Oshkosh, Appleton United or Fond Du Lac next Tuesday night at Tri-County Ice Arena. The Stars will conclude regular season play today at Brookfield.