Spiders start second lap around the league with 3-2 win

Jan. 28, 2018

The Spiders put on a dominating performance to take a crucial 3-2 win over the Battle Cats on Sunday.

From the opening faceoff the Spiders controlled the game and peppered Battle Cat goalie T. Gist with pucks. In the season opener for both teams Gist stole the show, limiting the Spiders to one goal on 34 shots. On Sunday it took one of his own teammates to open the scoring on him as a defenseman deflected a Matt Adelmann shot into the net. The Spiders took a 1-0 lead and an 18-6 shot advantage into the first intermission.

The second period passed with nothing of note in the box score but the Spiders continued to get good chances, only to be denied by Gist. Spider netminder Brian Dow made a couple big saves as the Olympic ice sheet led to some poor angles from Spider defensemen and odd man rushes.

Early in the third period Derk Jacobson extended the Spider lead with a beautiful deflection of a Paul Fitch shot. The Battle Cats closed to 2-1 as a centering pass deflected off bodies and skittered past Dow. Cody Buckalew gave the Spiders a little breathing room with just over four minutes left. Streaking down the right wing on a 2-on-1 Bucks roofed it into the top netting over the goalie’s glove, knocking off the water bottle to add some style points.

In the final minute the Cats again closed to a goal as a shot to the point fortuitously deflected to a waiting Battle Cat between the circles who fired it home. That’s the way it ended – 3-2 victory for the Spiders.

The victory is even more impressive is that the Spiders were without four of their five leading goal scorers in Jason Yancey, Christian Peterson, Aaron Bedessem, and Joe Long.

It was a deserved win for the Spiders; outshooting the Battle Cats 41-24. It was also much-needed in that it equalized the head-to-head tie breaker with the Battle Cats. The Spiders win, coupled with other results in the league, move the Spiders from 5th to 2nd place. The Spitfires Green are alone on top with 16 points. The Spiders and Taz Devils are tied at 15 points with the Spiders holding the head-to-head tiebreaker. Lurking just behind are the Battle Cats with 14 points and the Northern Horde and Wild on 13.

The Spiders next take the ice on Saturday, February 3rd against the Chiefs. The Chiefs don’t have the greatest record at 2-8-1-0 but they always play the Spiders tough and are on a two-game win streak. Face off is at 9:15pm at New Hope N.