Young Guns Take Down The Warriors

March 8, 2011

There’s a critical key to winning hockey game — score more goals than the other team. The Spiders have been leading the league in goals allowed for most of the season. But Tuesday they would get the offense in gear as well and walk away with a 5-0 win. The Warriors, eager for a win, had not had a win since January 29 and would go home extending their losing streak to six games.

Since the tie to the Muskies when the Spiders lost control of their own destiny, they re-gained it with the Sled Dogs upset of the Fighting Piranhas the next day. With knowledge of their position and need to win out to secure first place, the Spiders decided to scratch Bortnem (lower body), C. Stalpes (labor dispute), Maietta, Butalla and Armagost. The call-ups in their place were Forcelle, Delsing and Yard.

Tonight started in a manner that has become commonplace for the home team. The Warriors applied heavy first period pressure and seemed to have the energy level that the Spiders were seeking. The bounces were in favor of the Spiders as the screened shots were deflected, knocked down and cleared out of the goal mouth. The home team seemed flat, disorganized and were missing a spark that would motivate them to victory. When the horn sounded, the Spiders seemed to be gathering the momentum in their favor but the scoreboard still read 0-0, but it was the blistering speech from Captain Schliesman and the juggling of a few lines that proved to be the difference maker.

The St. Paul Academy ice was already showing fatigue and was slowing to a near snail’s pace when the puck dropped to open the second period. Following an early penalty kill, the Spiders began to rise to the occasion. Shots were launched from just about every angle and the noose was tightening around the Warriors. Hilden finally powered a shot past the sprawling goaltender during the end of third power play to finally put a crack into the façade of Warrior strength.

Nearing the end of the second period and warding off the onslaught of pressure from the Warriors, Bedessem, playing in his second game since losing three game checks due to an undisclosed injury suspension, took Josh Cagle’s outlet pass and deked his way into a break-away. The end result was a 2-0 lead and the Spiders were well on their way to victory.

The third period goals came off of Adelmann’s blast from the top of the circle and Bedessem added two more to cap off a hat-trick for the evening. Josh Cagle, who was complaining of having no energy in the second, ended up with two assists. Doug Thorson was also credited with two assists. At the end of the contest, the youth on team (including Thorson’s fountain of youth) stepped up and provided all the scoring.

Dow was able to secure his third shutout of the season despite some attempts by his own team to provide him extra activity in the waning minutes. He ended the night with 27 saves and was, once again, giving credit to the defense that cleared a lot of strange rebounds out of harm’s way.

Slow starts seem to be a mainstay of the Spiders style of play and with the home stretch in sight, the defense will need to continue to step up until that mystery is solved.

With the win, the Spiders clinch a playoff berth but every game is important from here out. The Fighting Piranhas have also clinched while the Roadrunners, Warriors and Muskies have been officially eliminated from post-season play. That leaves the Jets, Sled Dogs and Admirals fighting for the final two spots. The Admirals are the most desperate team of them all as they trail the fourth-place team by three points. The Spiders encounter the Admirals on Saturday night at St. Louis Park. The promotions department has tagged the next game as the “Spend the Sub Money” night.

Attendance: 17