Playoff preview – Beavers, Nemesis, and Avengers
March 31, 2013
With the regular season in the books, the Spiders have advanced to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. Thanks to winning the regular season C1 East title, the Spiders will be the top seed in pool A for the playoffs. The Spiders kick off the playoffs on Tuesday against the Beavers. The Spiders schedule can be found here.
Playoff opponents previews:
Beavers (10-6-3-1 for 24 pts., 4th place C1 East)
The Beavers owe the Spiders a big thanks as the Spiders 8-2 win over the Thunder Chickens on Wednesday eliminated the Chickens and put the Beavers into the playoffs. I wouldn’t expect any of this gratefulness to mean they won’t play the Spiders tough though.
The first matchup this season ended in a 1-1 draw as Brian Dow had 26 saves. The rematch during the first annual Family Night wasn’t nearly as close with the Spiders taking a 5-2 win.
The Beavers have only scored 67 goals on the season, fewest of any of the C1 playoff teams. But they also have a strong goaltender in Shawn Himmelberger who is capable of stealing games. While they are a strong team this is a game the Spiders have to win to have a chance to advance to the tier championship.
Nemesis (14-4-2-0 for 30 pts., 2nd place C1 West)
The Nemesis tied the Fighting Piranhas with 30 points in the regular season but lost a tiebreaker of number of wins. After going 8-12-0-0 last season the Ne”M’s”esis restocked the roster with numerous players from the disbanded M’s, including three of their top five scorers this season. Four players have more than 20 points with R. Bullard leading all of C1 with 36 points. Their +36 goal differential is best in all of C1, meaning they’re good at putting the puck in the net AND keeping it out of their own.
One interesting note is that their rostered goalie, D. Snyder, only played eight games. Former Rack Attack star netminder Bobby Stewart has been in goal their last eight games, in which they went 7-0-1. Stewart had a 94.25% save percentage through the regular season last year. Expect to see Stewart between the pipes for the playoffs. Last time the Spiders saw Stewart was the final pool play game last year, in which the Spiders beat the Rack Attack 3-2 behind a hat trick from Jim Maietta.
Avengers (12-5-3-0 for 27 pts., 3rd place C1 West)
The Avengers were a new team for 2012-13 started by longtime Jets (and multiple other team) skater Jeff “Chicky” Stimac. Very little is known about the players on the Avengers as it appears many of them are new to the AHA.
Statistically speaking the Avengers are a very good defensive team, allowing only 496 shots on goal. The Avengers are the only team with fewer shots on goal than the Spiders, who allowed only 519. Goalie C. Maggiolo has been strong statistically, saving 90.44% of the shots that do get on net.
Offensively, the Avengers are very balanced with no player scoring more than 19 points this season.
After leading the C1 West division for a stretch early in the season the Avengers faltered late, going 2-2-3-0 over the last seven games of the season.
