Spiders Dominate Chaos 6-1

Jan. 15, 2012

As the midpoint of the season approaches, every team is trying to figure out what they are. Dominating Frontrunner? Solid Contender? Underdog striving for the playoffs? Bottom Dweller? With four consecutive wins over the Aces, Warriors, Roadrunners, and Norsemen, the Spiders were looking to confirm their place in the Frontrunner tier. The Spiders beat the Chaos Black 4-1 in the season opener but the game was closer than the score.

The Spiders got the best of play in the first period with a 17-5 shot advantage. Chaos netminder Dale Melbie made some key saves to keep the score at 0-0. The Spiders lifted the lid on the scoring early in the second period as Chris Stalpes served up a shot from the point that the Chaos D couldn’t resist tipping past their own goalie. Jim Maietta then took over as he scored a natural hat trick with goals at 15:00 and 04:49 of the second period and 13:17 of the third period.

Captain Dave Schliesman is proven to be a strategical (yeah, that’s right) genius as the new Maietta/Schliesman/Butalla line is running roughshod over the league in their two weeks skating together. Brad Butalla dumped in a trio of goal last week against the Norsemen and the line is celebrating 8 goals (!!!) and 9 assists (!!!) in the last two games. Holy wah!!!

Meanwhile, the Spiders aptitude for penalty-committing provided plenty of opportunity for the Chaos to get back into the game. The Chaos had two extended 5-on-3 power plays but the Spiders D played smart defense and prevented even a single shot on goal. Spiders netminder Brian Dow dutifully turned away every shot he saw, including a breakaway on a bad pinch by a defenseman, for the first two periods.

Josh Cagle (more Chaos-on-Chaos deflection) and Aaron Bedessem added goals late in the third period to extend the score to 6-0. A defensive breakdown led to a 2-on-1 in front of goaltender Brian Dow and the Chaos got on the board late in the game.

A dominating 6-1 win over a solid Chaos team securely slots the Spiders into the Dominating Frontrunner category. The Spiders are ½ point behind the slightly more Dominating Frontrunner and defending champion M’s.

The next two games will further cement the Spiders identity. Up next on Sunday, January 22nd are the newly crowned Solid Contender Yellow Jackets, fresh off a 7-3 beat down of the Zephyrs. The Spiders will follow that game with a January 29th showdown with those same Zephyrs, who are still hanging onto Solid Contender status based on their history.