Cody Kohls scored three goals and added an assist to help a trio of seniors lead Wisconsin Rapids past DC Everest 6-3 Thursday night at the South Wood County Rec Center.
Fellow classmates Sam Storlie (4a) and Logan Conkey (1g-2a) led a 17 point attack in the Wisconsin Valley Conference match-up.
Kohls started the scoring just over three minutes into the contest when he knocked in a rebound of a Conkey shot for the early 1-0 lead. Jacob Morman also had an assist.
The score became 2-0 three minutes later Kohls was given credit for a score on a play where the puck bounced off him and into the net. DCE coach Dan VanSlyke argued briefly that Kohls illegally hit the puck into the goal, but the officials begged to differ and the score counted.
The Evergreens (7-9, 3-4 WVC) cut the lead to 2-1 a couple minutes later when Mathew Janke skated in across the slot from right to left and slid a backhander that snuck past Rapids goalie Tanner Reany, with an assist to Dalton Weller.
The period ended with the hosts holding a 13-8 shot advantage.
Kohls earned his hat trick five minutes into the middle period with a tap-in after a wrap-around attempt by Conkey, who got the assist to make the score 3-1.
Isaac Gilbert made it 4-1 Rapids with a rebound with just over five minutes left in the period. Storlie and Jared Sawyer were given helpers on the scoring play.
Rapids held a 15-5 shot margin in the period.
The refs got busy and called 26 penalty minutes in the final period after two clean stanzas. But only one resulted in a power play goal.
Early in the period a collision between Gilbert and Matt Lukasik wiped out the Everest goalie and broke the netminder's Warrior paddle.
After grabbing the back-up lumber, Janke saw Tyler Blaes punch in a rebound with just over ten minutes left in the game, with Storlie and Erik Prochnow earning assists on the play.
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A minute later, Rapids capitalized on said power play when Conkey scored from the backdoor to make the tally 6-1. Kohls and Morman were penciled in for assists.
Then things got a little interesting as Everest scored twice in a span of 51 seconds to cut the lead to three goals.
Mathew Janke scored his second goal to make it 6-2 with 7:58 remaining for the unassisted goal. Then less than a minute later, Logan Spooner scored from the bottom of the left circle on a shot that appeared to deflect off a stick and whiz over the goalie's right shoulder to make it 6-3. Ryan Begley and Ben Weller got assists on the play.
Rapids was called for two successive penalties with less than 3:30 to go and had to kill off 49 seconds of 5-on-3 action, but they were successful. In fact, Everest pulled goalie Michael Janke out for an extra attacker and had nearly a half-minute of 6-on-3, but some less-than-crisp passing spoiled the power play attempt as Rapids earned the hard-fought victory.
Everest held a 15-7 shot edge in the final period.
Reany made 25 stops for Rapids (12-5, 5-1 WVC) while Michael Janke stopped 29 shots for DCE.
NOTE: It was 'Stick it to Cancer' night as the game raised $1850 for the UW-Riverview Cancer Center, including $225 donated for the nine goals scored.
