Late rally comes up short as Spiders fall to the Loons

Jan. 23, 2015

The Spiders comeback fell short Monday in a game where it seemed equipment gods and the refs were conspiring against them.

First, Cory Buckalew realized he forgot his gloves at home. Luckily (we thought) for him, Bob Maietta had an extra pair in his bag. Only then did Maietta realize that not only did he not have his spare gloves, he only had the right glove from his normal pair. In what can only be described as a miracle, the lost & found contained a (junior size) pair of gloves plus a stray left glove to allow Bucks and Bob to take the ice. Just as it looked like they were in the clear, Mike Townsend realized he left his jersey at home. Luckily, Ryan Wilson had a spare red jersey in his bag.

By the time the Spiders took the ice they assumed everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong. And then the Loons scored twice in the first three minutes… By the end of the first period the Spiders had started to get back in the game and create good scoring chances.

But then we got some good, old fashioned officiating incompetence. With the Spiders in their own end, the net got knocked ~12 inches off the post. Spider goalie Brian Dow tried to alert the apparently clueless referees as play continued for another 10 seconds before the Loons scored into the askew net. Both officials then realized the net was off when the goal was scored but refused to disallow the goal. One official tried to justify allowing the goal by claiming he warned Dow for knocking the net off so he was allowing the goal. Dow later confirmed the net had not come off previously and as such, the official never mentioned it to him. The other official decided to allow it because he said it didn’t affect the play.

There are two possible conclusions that can be drawn. The first is that the officials may be incompetent. A goal can NEVER be scored with the net off. Both officials knew the net was off. By rule they should have waved the goal off and re-started with a face off in the Spiders zone. The other conclusion is that maybe the officials knew the rule but decided to just bend the rules as they see fit. And judging by the way the clowns officials attempted to sputter out explanations after the game, they knew they screwed up too.

The Loons would add to the misery minutes later to take a 4-0 lead.

And then the Spider comeback began. In the span of 1:53, two goals by Bob Maietta and one by Matt Adelmann narrowed the deficit to 4-3. The Spiders had the Loons on their heels the rest of the period, just narrowly missing tying the game up on numerous occasions.

Early in the third period a Loons goal gave them some breathing room, extending the lead to 5-3. With Dow pulled for an extra skater, Mike Townsend got the Spiders within a goal with a shorty with just over a minute to play. With Dow still on the bench, the Loons added an empty netter in the dying seconds to make the final score 6-4.

The loss drops the Spiders to 5-5 on the season, good for 5th place in the B3 East. Playoff format will be announced during the upcoming AHA captains meeting but it’s assumed the top 4 teams make the playoffs. This leaves the Spiders on the outside looking in. And it doesn’t get any easier as the Spiders next two games are against the 1st place Ice Hogs and 3rd place Taz Devils.

One bright spot for the Spiders was the return of veteran defenseman Tim Stalpes to the ice (and super fan Sandy Stalpes to the stands) after recovery from an off season conditioning injury.

Next up for the Spiders is another Monday night game, this one against the Ice Hogs on January 26th at 9:30pm at Breck. As of press time, this will also be team picture night as all 16 full time players are scheduled to attend.