Spiders Stage Epic Rally To Escape With A 6-6 Tie Against Royals

April 3, 2011

You had to excuse the Spiders if they had bad playoff memories of their opponent on Sunday night. The Royals took a 3-2 win over the Spiders in pool play and then a 4-0 dominating win in the C2 championship game last year.

The Spiders didn’t seem intimidated as they went up 1-0 in the opening minutes of the game off an effort goal from Brad Butalla. The Royals tied the score a few minutes later and the teams played evenly matched hockey into the second period.

From there, the wheels fell off for the Spiders. The Royals dominated the entire second period. They won every race to loose pucks. They created turnovers on the forecheck. They out-numbered the Spiders to pucks along the boards. And of course they scored often. While none of their goals were things of beauty, they created chances off turnovers and continually won races to pucks. With 13 minutes left to go in the game the Royals were up 5-1 and it appeared to be over.

The AHA playoff tiebreakers allow a wild card team into the single elimination phase of the tournament and goals for/against differential is important. With this in mind, assistant captain Josh Cagle called time out with the score at 5-1 to implore the Spiders to keep playing hard.

As is often seen in the AHA, one high-energy shift can change the momentum. First it was Brian Armagost on a one-man forecheck. Then a strong penalty kill with Jim Maietta in the box. One by one, the Spiders stepped up. And soon the ice tilted in the Spiders favor…

First 5-2, then 5-3, then 5-4 within a span of two minutes. Then the Royals struck back to go up 6-4. While the rally started as a mission to salvage goal differential, it started to creep into the collective mind of the Spiders that more was possible.

Still 6-4 with less than a minute to play, the Spiders pulled goaltender Brian Dow and it paid off with a goal by Jim Maietta to get to 6-5 with 0:36 to go. Inexplicably, the Royals didn’t call time out and let the onslaught continue. With 0:28 left and Dow heading to the bench again, Jay Hilden evened the score at 6-6 off a beautiful pass from Aaron Bedessem. The Spiders couldn’t keep up the frenetic goal-scoring pace and time ran out. AHA playoff rules don’t allow overtime so the Spiders and Royals skated off with a 6-6 tie.

Of course the tie felt like a win for the Spiders and a loss for the Royals. The Spiders were outshot by a 34-18 margin but made the most of those shots as they scored 5 goals on 6 shots in the third period.

As the euphoria of an unexpected tie fades, the Spiders will realize they need to play much, much better to have a chance at advancing in the playoffs. While it would be nice to think the Spiders were playing an Ali-style rope-a-dope to tire out the young legs of the Royals, they simply escaped. They must play a complete game to have any chance at advancing in the playoffs.

Next up for the Spiders are the Bulls on Thursday, April 3rd at 6:15pm at the Olympic-sized BIG 3 ice sheet. The Bulls are fresh off an upset 4-3 win over the Thunder Chickens in the game immediately preceding the Spiders/Royals match up.