Spiders Beat Warriors 5-1

March 23, 2010

As Yogi Berra famously said, “It’s déjà vu, all over again.” The Spiders once again made the trip up to Brooklyn Park to take on a strong playoff-caliber team while trying to hold off the hard-charging Sled Dogs for the C2 North championship. On March 14th the Spiders dominated the Muskies 5-1 at Brooklyn Park and hoped to repeat the feat against the Warriors.

Just as they did against the Muskies, the Hilden/Bedessem/Butalla line got the Spiders on the board first. Aaron Bedessem carried the puck up the right wing and threaded a perfect pass right on the tape of Brad Butalla at the top of the crease. Butalla buried the puck past a totally helpless goalie with both Bedessem and Tim Stalpes picking up assists.

As the clocked ticked down in the first period, “déjà vu” happened once again. Jay Hilden powered the puck up the right side and put a pass right on Aaron Bedessem’s stick at the top at the top of the crease. Again, the goalie could only hope for Bedessem to hit him with the puck. No luck as Bedessem buried it with only 0.1 seconds left on the clock. Assists to Hilden and linemate Brad Butalla.

Meanwhile, Spider netminder Brian Dow was on his game as he turned away eight shots in the first period, including several hard wristers from the Warriors talented group of forwards. At the end of the first period, it was the Spiders 2, Warriors nil.

Brian Armagost added his 9th goal of the season early in the second with assists from Mark Bortnem and Shawn Tromiczak. This was yet another parallel of the Muskies game as an Armagost marker also put the Spiders up 3-0 in that game.

The third period began with Chris Stalpes banking a slapper off the hind end of a Warrior player and past an unsuspecting goaltender. Of course it looks like a laser into the corner on the score sheet so who’s to say different besides the 22 lucky souls in attendance? And those who read this… It’s a goal nonetheless. Congratulations Chris!

The Warriors finally got on the board with just under six minutes left in the game as a deflected puck fluttered past Brian Dow. Aaron Bedessem then proved how much he likes his home rink with his second goal of the game to close out the scoring.

Final score – the Spiders win 5-1. Any guesses of the final of the Muskies game? Of course, 5-1.

For the game, the Spiders outshot the Warriors 24-23. The game was actually much more competitive than the final score indicates. The Warriors have some of the best skaters in C2 and they made sure Spiders goalie Brian Dow earned this win. The difference was the precision passing by the Spiders, the defense keeping the Warriors to the outside, great effort on the backcheck by the forwards, and of course, a strong outing by Dow.

The Spiders remain in first place in the C2 North with only a showdown against the Renegades on Saturday, April 3rd standing between them and a regular season title. The win secures either a first- or second-place finish for the Spiders with a loss or tie in the finale bringing several tie-breakers into play depending on the Sled Dogs last game. Regardless, the Spiders first three playoff games will be the evening of Tuesday, April 6th, the evening of Thursday, April 8th, and the morning of Saturday, April 10th.

Photo courtesy Vandenberghe Instant Media Services