In high school athletics there isn’t anything better than cross-town rivalries.

Tuesday night DC Everest made the short trip across town to face-off against East-Merrill United at Marathon Park. It was the second meeting between the two Wisconsin Valley rivals, with DCE getting a 3-1 victory in the Marathon Cup. Everest was riding a four-game winning streak and the BlueJacks a modest two game streak. Both teams were missing key seniors from their line-ups. Thomas Passineau (shoulder) for Everest and Brodie Trantow (ribs) for EMU.

Tied at 1-1 in the second period, the heat of the rivalry simmered to the top as each team took three penalties. The Evergreens converted two of their three powerplay opportunities into a 3-1 lead and junior goaltender Griffen Bunnell did the rest as DCE posted a 4-1 win. Cole Van Slyke had a hand in all four goals, scoring twice and handing out two assists.

“Cole VanSlyke had a nice game for us tonight with four points,” relayed proud father and DCE Head Coach Dan Van Slyke. It concluded an 11-point week for Van Slyke who had seven points in wins over the Northwest Iceman and Rhinelander.

The win kept DCE in the Wisconsin Valley hunt with a 4-2 record.

East-Merrill started quickly taking a 1-0 lead at 10:02. “I thought we came out playing well and did a good job of trying to set the pace of the game,” said EMU Head Coach Nate Pagel. Merrill sophomore Jackson Pierce did the dirty work on the first goal with a heavy forecheck and puck retrieval in the offensive zone. Pierce made a tape-to-tape pass to Zach Pagel who slid down the weakside and zipped the puck past Bunnell. It was Pagels 14th goal of the season and Pierce’s 17th assist.

BlueJacks goaltender Chase Klebenow held the Evergreens at bay making several quality saves in the opening period. The Merrill senior stymied Hayden Johnson and Adam McKaig from in close, then denied a great individual effort by Brett Schulz who navigated his way to the front of the net.

EMU nearly took a two-goal lead with just over a minute to play when Nick Bodner exploded alone down the right wing, but Bunnell got a glove on the shot. Seconds later Connor Zdroik nearly set-up Parker Klebenow for a point-blank shot, but a strong backcheck by Van Slyke turned the puck the other way where he would tie the game with just 14 seconds remaining. Defenseman Aiden Haupt moved the puck down the wall to Xavier May who fired a backdoor pass to Van Slyke for an easy tap in goal.  

An EMU interference penalty by Brody Benedict, at 15:32, opened the second period action. It took DCE just nine seconds to grab a 2-1 lead. May, quarterbacking the Everest powerplay, dragged the puck across the blue line, then fed a pass back to Van Slyke who found Gabe Simonson with a dot-to-dot pass, where the junior defenseman snapped home a wrist shot.

“We got into some penalty problems and DCE took advantage of them,” said Pagel.

Van Slyke, who could make my all-blue-collar team, nearly netted a shorthanded goal, out racing the EMU defenseman, but Klebenow kept the score at 2-1. “Chase Klebenow had a solid night in net,” noted Pagel.

A second BlueJack penalty, at 5:49 produced a similar, but even faster Everest goal. May once again slid across the blue line, then fired on net, where Hayden Johnson collected a rebound and lifted it past a sprawling Klebenow. The goal took just seven seconds. It should be noted that Adam McKaig started both powerplay goals with a key face-off win. For Xavier May, it was his third assist of the game and for DCE a 3-1 lead.

Dan Van Slyke had praise for his special teams, “Our power play was effective and we found the seams that were open,” he said.

Both teams took another penalty in the last two minutes of the period. DCE would take a 3-1 lead into the third. Everest took control of the period with a 12-5 shots advantage.

Everest got a big, blocked shot by Haupt early in the third period when EMU defenseman Ryker Remington fired a grade A chance from the top of the circles. The BlueJacks pace was much better in the third and an Evergreen penalty at 11:56 gave them a golden opportunity. Bunnell stopped Jackson Pierce on a great chance after Pierce stole a puck near the goal line and crashed the DCE net.

Everest finally got the breathing room they were looking for after a heavy forecheck produced a goal with 5:12 to play. Some physical corner work by Brayden Myska and Schulz generated a loose puck that Van Slyke took off the wall and under the dot where he stuck it under the crossbar for a 4-1 final score.

Hidden beyond Cole Van Slyke’s four-point night was the animated play of goalie Griffen Bunnell who turned in a stellar 28 save performance. Bunnell, who is very active, also plays pucks exceptionally well. The highly competitive junior, who I have never seen give up on a puck, lowered his GAA to 1.75 and raised his save percentage to 93.5%.

“We are playing well defensively and Griffen Bunnell is playing at a really high level, praised Van Slyke. ”I like where we are as a team. We are getting solid production throughout our lineup.”

“In the third period the boys continued to play well, had some very good scoring chances, but were unable to capitalize on them,” explained Pagel. “Very proud of the team for how they played tonight.”

East-Merrill (5-10) will get right back on the ice tonight as they host the Charlie Phelps Memorial Tournament at the MARC in Merrill. The Evergreens (11-5) take the weekend off before traveling to Ice Hawks on Tuesday to take on Stevens Point Pacelli (1-9).

Three Stars of the game:

1-DCE-Van Slyke, 2-DCE-Bunnell, 3-DCE-X.May/EMU-C.Klebenow

Blue Collar-EMU-Pagel  DCE-Schulz