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Dively's hat-trick leads the Evergreens over Fond du Lac Springs

By Bill Berg, 12/29/11, 11:55AM CST

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DC Evererst advances to Thursday's championship game.

Brandon Dively scored three times, all assisted by Alex Yde, to lead the DC Everest Evergreens to a 6-1 win over the Fond du Lac Springs Ledgers in the last semi-final game of the Evergreens Holiday Tournament at Greenheck Field House Arena.

Everest scored first, just 32 seconds in, on a high shot from the point by Alex Yde that was deflected down and between the Springs goalies legs by Brandon Dively, whose stick was about as high as it could be without drawing a high-sticking call. The Springs bench protested that the stick was actually above the magic line, but got nowhere with the officials, a theme that would be repeated throughout the game.

Luke Merchant scored a power play goal for the Evergreens at the 3:00 mark, with an assist by Cole Halligan. And then things settled down for most of the rest of the period, when Dively and Yde struck again. Yde’s shot from the top of the face-off crcle was stopped by Andrew Riehl, but the rebound came right to Dively on the left side and he tapped it home for a 3-0 Evergreens lead.

Springs used the first intermission to shuffle their lines up and try to find a spark. It seemed to work as the ice leveled off and the Ledgers out-shot Everest 9-6 in the second period. At 13:21 They got on the board with a power play goal from Matt Austin who took a shot from the face-off circle, Jared Enkers dropped down into a butterfly, but the shot went over his shoulder. Brendon Gysbers got the assist on the play. But things unraveled for the Ledgers a couple minutes later when Benton Deanovich was assessed his fourth penalty, ending his night and generating more discussion between the Springs bench and the officials. When the dust settled, the ledgers were on the short end of a 5 on 3 power play. Everest was able to capitalize when Allan Sackman fired a high shot that Riehl knocked down, but Yde was there to backhand in the rebound.

The Evergreens added two more goals in the third period, including another by the scoring duo of Dively from Yde, and the last goal by Colin Helke from Cole Halligan.

Fond du Lac Springs takes on Green Bay United on Thursday in the Consolation game, and Everest will play Verona for the tournament championship.

WiPH Game Summaries