DeLisle Scores Four as Drury Tops Mount Everett
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It scored eight more over the next 30 minutes to take a 9-3 win from Mount Everett at Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink.
David DeLisle scored the first Blue Devils goal and added three more of his own.
“We have a very good group of guys this year,” DeLisle said. “We always start out a little slow, but we find a way to dig deep and put up as many goals as we can.”
Drury was a slow starter this season, going 1-4 in its first five games. But Wednesday marked its third win in a row to get back to the .500 mark.
Branden Lincoln scored twice and set up three goals. Zack Lillie had two goals and two assists, and Jameson Bayliss scored a goal in the win.
Things did not start out so great for the Blue Devils. Mount Everett caught a big break early when Luke Kamienski’s clearing pass out of the defensive zone on a penalty kill took a bad bounce at the other end of the ice and alluded keeper Chase Vander-Woude to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
“I wasn’t worried,” Drury coach Derek Durocher said. “I’ve seen a lot of that over the years, and you’ve just got to stick with it. You’ve got to have a short-term memory on things like that.”
The second time Drury got a power play chance, it lit the lamp as Lillie set up DeLisle in the final minute of the first to send the teams to intermission tied, 1-1.
Kamienski scored with an assist from Aiden Fennelly to give Mount Everett another one-goal lead to start the second period, but just more than a minute later, DeLisle converted an assist from Lincoln to tie it.
And just 44 seconds after that, Lincoln converted a cross from Tyler Pettit for the eventual game-winner.
Lincoln scored a power play goal midway through the period to give the Blue Devils a two-goal cushion at 4-2, but Kyle Benzie scored with an assist from Dominic Velasco to get Mount Everett back within a goal.
Late in the second period, Lillie scored unassisted to make it 5-3 heading to the third, and it was all Drury from there.
A goal from Bayliss and two more from DeLisle came in the span of just 48 seconds to push the margin to five goals, and just more than a minute later, Lillie put the icing on the cake with an assist from Collin Booth.
Drury outshot Mount Everett 35-8. Bobby Baer stopped 26 shots for the Eagles (1-7-1).
“We’ve had games where we’ve had that volume of chances and not finished,” Durocher said. “So it was nice to see the finish part of it.”
It was also nice for the Blue Devils to see a continued turnaround. Included in that 1-4 start was a 5-4 loss to the Eagles in Sheffield.
Part of the difference this time is that Drury is playing at full strength.
“We struggled the first part of the season,” DeLisle said. “A lot of guys out with injuries and COVID. Once we got the full squad back together, we have chemistry from youth league, and we just all play together.”
Drury goes to Ludlow on Thursday. Mount Everett is at Chicopee Comp on Saturday.