By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
DE PERE – Murphy Eggers scored four goals and added an assist as the De Pere Voyageurs hockey team defeated Appleton United 6-0 Dec. 20 at the De Pere Ice Center.
Gabe Andrews and Charlie Eggers added the other two goals in the non-conference victory.
Brody Van Den Heuvel stopped all 17 shots in net for De Pere (5-2-2 overall).
Gage Olson made 41 saves in goal for Appleton United (2-8-1 overall).
The night didn’t start well for De Pere but it’s how you finish that matters.
Just eight seconds into the contest, the Voyageurs took a penalty after Trevor Tomoda got loose on the opening face-off.
De Pere killed the penalty and began their offensive assault.
With 6:44 left in the opening period, M. Eggers notched his first goal off a redirected shot by Grant Tritabaugh.
With just seconds left in the opening stanza, Van Den Heuvel made a great glove save after Appleton United’s Ethan Baker tried a wrap-around move.
“We had plenty of looks and I thought really dominated the opening period, but Appleton United’s goalie made some great saves,” said De Pere head coach John Coppo.
De Pere scored its second goal just over six minutes into period two, when C. Eggers fed M. Eggers on a two-on-one to start the onslaught.
Four minutes later, after another bad Appleton United penalty, C. Eggers struck for a goal off a rebound that came right to him in front of the net.
“We played good team hockey in that middle period,” Coppo said. “Our first line really stepped up, and obviously Murphy had a fantastic game where everything seemed to go in.”
With just under five minutes left in the middle period, Van Den Heuvel showed why he is one of the better goaltenders in the state. Appleton United had a 3-on-1 break and Van Den Heuvel came out to what looked like the blue line and stoned Josh Christofferson with an amazing save.
“Brody again showed tonight why I think he is one of the best goaltenders in Wisconsin,” Coppo added. “He showed great technique and has been one of our most consistent players through nine games.”
The Voyageurs essentially put the game away with just three seconds left when M. Eggers went top-shelf (hat-trick) to give De Pere a 4-0 lead heading into the final period.
After a fifth and sixth goal were scored by De Pere in the first six minutes of the final period, a running clock was instituted and the Voyageurs went on to capture the game and get the shutout for their goaltender.
Box Score:
Appleton United: 0, 0, 0—0
De Pere: 1, 3, 2—6
Shots on Goal:
Appleton United: 2, 10, 5—17
De Pere: 18, 18, 11—47
