It stands to reason that a wildly unpredictable regular season should be followed by an any-thing-can-happen playoff season. On that note, the seventh-seeded Lakeland Thunderbirds travelled down to Greenheck Fieldhouse and handed the second-seeded and sixth-ranked DC Everest Evergreens a 3-2 loss on Thursday night. 

It is the only #7 beats #2 out of the six played so far, but two others have been closer than expected. There have also been 3 upsets by #6 over the #3 seeds so far. Parity may be coming to WIAA hockey.

The first period opened with both teams moving the puck well around the outsides of the big ice sheet in Schofield, but nobody getting anything toward the opponent’s net. Then the T-Birds were able to work the puck in close to Evergreen goalie Jared Enkers, but the DCE bottled them up, so Nathan Kingstad kicked the puck back to Tanner Litvinoff at the blue line. Litvinoff shot high through traffic and passed a screened Enkers for the first goal at 5:02. Jared Dern also assisted on the play.

Lakeland increased their lead to 2-0 at 14:36 on a goal by Dern. AJ Oungst had the puck in the Evergreens zone and passed to Jared Suter at the right point. Suter’s shot was just wide of the net, but caromed off the back boards to Dern at the side of the net. Dern flipped the puck over Enkers, who had gone down to protect against Suter’s shot.

DCE cut the lead in half with just 37 seconds left in the first period. Mark Wilke was trying to drive through the slot and got cut off by the T-Birds defense, so he passed to Joe Patterson at the bottom of the left faceoff circle. Patterson’s quick shot beat Lakeland goalie Alex Moustakis over his left shoulder.

The tight defense on each end limited the shots on net, only 7 saves for Enkers of DCE and 4 for Moustakis of Lakeland.

No team wants to get scored on in the last minute of a period. It changes the tone in the locker room during intermission. Everest grabbed that momentum and carried it into the second period, tying the game at 4:24 on a goal by Chris Babiarz. Brandon Dively flipped the puck up and out of the Evergreens’ zone and Alex Yde picked it up at center ice and drove down the right side into the T-Birds zone. He was cut off on his drive toward the net, but then he saw Babiarz driving through the slot and slipped him the puck.

The size and speed of the Evergreens appeared to be wearing down the Thunderbirds in the second period, and it looked like DCE was going to take control. But Lakeland hung on and there was no more scoring in the second period. Shots were even at 8 each for the period.

Lakeland dispelled the wearing-down notion early in the third period, getting back to protecting the middle of the rink and making crisp passes to clear the zone and move up ice. At 5:20 freshman Nik Boyer got a breakout pass from Suter. From there, Boyer said “I was able to move the puck through the neutral zone and wide into the offensive end. My teammates were covered so all there was to do was shoot and I ended up putting it in the far side up high.”

Boyer’s shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle went high as Enkers went down. “I got a lucky break on a shot that didn’t go where it should have,” he said after the game. “It couldn’t have been done without the hustle of Tanner (Litvinoff) and Tommy (Berger).”

From there on, it was buckle down the defense and hang on. DC Everest poured on the pressure, especially in the last five minutes of the period, holding the puck in the T-Birds zone, but not able to get any good looks at Moustakis. Even with the pressure, they were only able to get 7 shots on net in the third period, and none of those shots were any real threat.

The T-Birds now have a very familiar foe to look forward to on Tuesday, as fellow GNC member Northland Pines defeated Wausau East in the other Regional final game. Lakeland fell to the Eagles 9-1 in their first game, and 2-0 in the rematch.