Spiders Stage Comeback Against Fighting Piranhas But Fall Short In OT

Feb. 26, 2011

“One is an accident, two is a coincidence, and three is a trend”

November 7, 2010 – Fighting Piranhas outshoot Spiders 38-28 but Brian Dow steals the win as Spiders take a 1-0 victory. Accident…

January 5, 2011 – Spiders outshoot Fighting Piranhas 34-28 but solid goaltending and a late power play goal result in a Fighting Piranhas win. Coincidence…

Which brings us to Saturday night…

The Spiders were noticeably short-handed at the drop of the puck as prior commitments (Schliesman, Hilden, Bedessem, and Harnett), illness (Maietta), and forgetting a sweater (Cagle) resulted in only 11 skaters.

Unfazed, the Spiders came out flying and seemingly got on the board first on a put back off a rebound as the Piranha goalie kicked the net off. The refs ruled the net was off before the puck crossed the line and game remained scoreless. The Spiders continued to pour on the pressure but the Piranhas got on the board first late in the period to take a 1-0 lead.

Midway through the second the Fighting Piranhas made it 2-0. Knowing the next goal would be huge, the Spiders continued applying pressure and defenseman Matt Adelmann caught the Piranha goalie leaning and pulled the Spiders within a goal. Just minutes later a centering pass from Jack Delsing deflected off Tim Forcelle’s skates and past the unsuspecting netminder to tie the game at 2-2. Josh Cagle, fresh as a daisy after missing the first period while rushing back to south Minneapolis to get his jersey, put the Spiders up 3-2 with a backhander through a pile of players.

Both teams had scoring chances in the third but the score remained 3-2. With just over three minutes left, Spider enforcer Jack Delsing was whistled for a curious tripping call in the corner and the Spiders called time out to talk penalty kill strategy. Fresh from a thorough discussion of the finer points of the PK, Spider goaltender Brian Dow made a couple crucial saves and the penalty expired.

With roughly 20 seconds left in the game, the referees began to choke on their whistles. This time it benefitted the Spiders as the refs somehow decided a run-of-the-mill offside call was intentional. This brought the face-off back to the Piranha end and prevented them from pulling their goaltender. It’s also worth noting they complemented this horrible call by placing the faceoff just inside the Piranha zone rather than at the circle.

The Piranhas won the faceoff and dumped the puck deep. A centering pass resulted in a scrum in front of the net and the official lost sight of the puck and blew the whistle. The puck was then shot in the net and the referee (get this) decided he mistakenly blew the whistle while it was still loose so he allowed the goal. A goal he agreed was scored after he blew the whistle.

Anyone who wasn’t there is probably thinking, “That can’t be right. Everyone knows a goal can’t be scored after the whistle, even if it was a bad whistle. Anyone who watches hockey knows this. The author of this fine writeup must be mistaken.” But that’s exactly what happened. It wasn’t even one of those “intent to blow the whistle” deals. The ref specifically admitted that he blew the whistle and then the puck went in. Yet he counted the goal. Seriously. I’m not joking.

To overtime… Just over a minute into OT, future C1 Piranha Smiglewski scored his 3rd goal of the night and AHA-leading 22nd of the season as he dangled and toe-dragged around a sprawling defenseman and then deposited a laser into the corner.

So, the Spiders outshot the Piranhas 35-25. The ref allowed a goal after the whistle to tie the game. Spiders lose 4-3. Can’t the better team win just once? Trend…

But if you’re the cup-half-full type, there were plenty of positives for the Spiders.

1. With the one point earned for an overtime loss, the Spiders remain in the driver’s seat in the C2 West. The Spiders have lost only five points while the Piranhas have lost six. In addition, the Spiders currently have the first tiebreaker of wins.
2. The Spiders outplayed the 2nd-place Fighting Piranhas without their three top scorers in Jay Hilden, Aaron Bedessem, and Dave Schliesman.
3. The Spiders mostly put the clamps on the high-scoring Fighting Piranha offense that had averaged an astounding 9 goals in the previous four games.
4. It was a very competitive, fun, clean game between two very good C2 teams.

The Spiders will next take the ice on Thursday, March 3 against the Muskies at Highland Arena in our capital city of St. Paul.

Attendance: An impressive, raucous crowd of 24 evenly split between the Spider and Piranha fans.