Spiders Score Early, Score Often in 7-2 Win

March 23, 2011

While the Spiders goaltending and defense have been stellar all season, the offense was the story on Wednesday.

Unlike many recent games, the Spiders had some consistency in forward lines as the high flying Bedessem/Hilden/Butalla and Bortnem/Armagost/Gustafson lines were intact. Late scratches of Dave Schliesman and Jim Maietta necessitated the move of jack-of-all-trades Greg Lindsley and offense-minded defenseman Matt Adelmann to play on the wings of Doug Thorson.

Matt Adelmann wasted no time in familiarizing himself with the offensive zone as he created a turnover on the forecheck and beat the Jets goalie less than two minutes into the game. Adelmann picked up another point midway through the period with an assist on Greg Lindsley’s goal.

Late in the second period, the Spiders enjoyed an extended 5-on-3 power play and showed good patience with the puck and aggressive forechecking to prevent the Jets from clearing the puck. Jay Hilden put the Spiders up 3-0 just before the first penalty expired with assists from Bob Harnett and Aaron Bedessem.

The second period was more of the same. Brad Butalla picked up his fourth goal of the year with a crisp shot into the corner of the net off a feed from Jay Hilden. Jay Hilden tallied his second goal and extended the lead to 5-0 on an off speed shot that caught the goalie by surprise. Matt Adelmann kept pace with Hilden by scoring on a breakaway to make the score 6-0.

The Jets got on the board late in the second as a loose puck in front of the net ended up on the stick of a Jets skater who alertly shoveled the puck to an unmarked teammate at the post. Spider goalie Brian Dow didn’t have a chance and the shut out was gone.

The ice seemed to be tilted in the Jets favor in the third period as they had numerous scoring chances. Dow stood tall and made several key stops, including a pad save on a breakaway by Jet captain Jeff “Chicky” Stimac.

Admittedly, it’s easy to let the mind wander in the middle of a 6-1 game. And apparently Brian Dow’s mind was elsewhere at one point in the period. Maybe he was mentally composing the wall post he would be making on his friend Chicky’s wall? Calculating his C2-leading goals against average? Pondering important questions like Biggie or Tupac, perhaps? A Jets player cleared the puck towards the Spiders goal from beyond center ice. Dow put the paddle down to stop the puck and it somehow snuck under his stick, between his legs, and into the goal.

And of course the next save Dow made, on a similarly harmless rolling puck, was followed by a friendly Bronx cheer by both teams.

Jay Hilden finished off his hat trick as he and Aaron Bedessem had the rarely seen 2-on-0 breakaway. Final score – 7-2.

Hopefully this offensive display is a sign of things to come as the busy social calendars of the Spiders are cleared for the playoffs and normal lines are back together.

The win keeps the Spiders in contention for the C2 West championship. To win the regular season title the Spiders need:

• A Spiders win against the Sled Dogs AND a Fighting Piranhas tie or loss against the Warriors.
  
  OR

• A Spiders tie against the Sled Dogs AND a Fighting Piranhas loss against the Warriors.

Saturday will be the rubber match with the Sled Dogs. The Spiders won the first game 2-1 with the ’Dogs taking the rematch 3-2. Both teams have clinched playoff spots so hopefully the game will have a peaceful tone rather than the contentious, rock ’em sock ’em atmosphere of the previous matchup.

Attendance: 6