NEENAH – It is not too often conference rivals get to square off in a playoff matchup. That was exactly the case for Badgerland Conference rivals Neenah and Fox Cities Tuesday night during the Hockey playoffs.
After splitting a pair of meetings during the season, this game had way more on the line as a spot in the sectional final was on the line. With so much riding on this game, both teams came out tough as they were not afraid to hit one another on the ice to make their presence felt.
For the most part, the game was fairly evenly played as the hard hitting disruptive any true offensive flow. If it wasn’t for two rough stretches lasting for a total of five minutes, the result may have been different on the scoreboard. Unfortunately, for the Stars, they fell victim to that rough stretch as the Neenah power play was too much for them to overcome in the 4-1 sectional semi-final loss.
“They are a better team than us and showed it on the ice tonight,” Head Coach Chris Van Zeeland said. “We had too rough stretches of play that did us in as we gave them too many easy looks. We couldn’t come back from that point on.”
From the opening drop of the puck, the intensity was visible as both teams were looking to establish themselves in the early going. The Rockets were the ones establishing command early as they capitalized on some aggressive play from the Stars. Just over two minutes into the game, the Rockets were awarded their first of six power play opportunities in the game as a holding call sent Trent Christoffel to the penalty box.
The Rockets wasted no time using that to their advantage as they fired countless shots at Max Gutjahr in net. With just over one minute gone by in the man advantage, the Stars were unable to corral the rebound on another Gutjahr save as the Rockets struck first 1-0. Just over 30 seconds later, it was the Rockets again capitalizing on a Fox Cities mistake as Ethan Long quickly made things 2-0 less than five minutes into the game.
After finally settling in after a rough start to the game, Fox Cities began to match the physicality of Neenah keeping them off the scoreboard the remainder of the period.
However, the Stars couldn’t generate much offense on their half of the ice as Preston Long was tested for just five shots in the first period. With the second period underway, the Stars appeared to be gaining the momentum they needed to break through. Instead, it was another man advantage that did them in as a rough stretch of play was about to begin.
Just over one minute in to the second period. Zach Bishop got a little too aggressive and was called for the Interference penalty. With another man advantage, Neenah was looking to extend the lead and potentially put the game out of reach. They didn’t need much time to add-on as once again the Stars inability to get the puck outside their own end cost then as Ethan Long delivered for his second goal of the night pushing things out to 3-0.
Things went from bad to worse for the Stars just three minutes later. Facing an already large three-goal deficit, Neenah was once again on the attack as they had a 2-1 on advantage. After it appeared Gutjahr had the play read, a terrific pass across the crease found an open man as the lead grew to 4-0 early in the second period.
In desperate need of some life, Fox Cities started to find rhythm on offense as they finally were getting some shots on goal consistently. Unfortunately for them, they never were able to put things home as the score remained 4-0 after two periods of play.
With Gutjahr holding up on his end, despite allowing four goals the offense knew they needed to get things rolling if they wanted to have sort of a comeback. That is exactly what they did using their momentum from the second period to come out strong in the third. With both teams at even strength, Nolan Lamers and Christoffel began moving the puck up ice in search of something offensively. They got just what they needed as Zane Van Zeeland cut across the middle to tap it home brining things to 4-1.
With new found life, the Stars offense suddenly seemed in control as the Rockets defense put them in a bad situation shortly after with a power play chance. This was the turning point in the game as a quick goal here would make things interesting. It was the Rockets defense standing tall when needed as they got through a highly competitive final period to knock off the Stars 4-1.