Spiders start strong with 6-2 win over Chaos

Nov. 1, 2015

The Spiders started the 2015-16 season on the right skate on Sunday night with a comfortable 6-2 win over the B3 newcomer Chaos. And making their Spider debuts were Joe Long, Brent Murray, and Drew Snodgrass.

The first 10 minutes were back and forth with the sloppy play that generally characterizes early season games. The Spiders slowly started controlling play through the second half of the period but it was the Chaos who struck first, scoring on a quick counter attack.

Unimpressed, Jay Hilden knotted the score at 1-1 minutes later with Joe Long giving the Spiders a 2-1 lead a minute later with a short-handed goal in his Spiders debut. Matt Adelmann extended the lead to 3-1 in the first minute of the second period as the Spiders were firmly in control.

The Chaos answered back with one of their many, many Benson’s catching Spider goalie Brian Dow leaning to the wrong side. Again the Spiders answered with Jay Hilden scoring directly off a face off with a deflection off a Chaos player. Cody Buckalew and Matt Adelmann added goals to make the final 6-2 for the good guys.

Big picture - there were a lot of positives to draw from the game. The Spiders were the better team cycling the puck in the offensive zone and closing down scoring opportunities in the defensive zone. The new guys also played on a line together and scored a goal and created a couple scoring opportunities while learning to play together. Brian Dow also made some big saves to keep the Chaos from getting back into the game.

But there are also areas for improvement. There Spiders still gave up several odd-man rushes due to turnovers in the neutral zone. While the Chaos are a good team, they’re still new to the speed of B3 and didn’t capitalize the way more experienced B3 teams will.

Next up for the Spiders are the Wild, against whom the Spiders went 1-1-1 last season. The puck drops on Friday at 9:00pm at Richfield 2.