Spiders and Barons skate to exciting 4-4 tie

Nov. 11, 2016

A capacity crowd of 4 witnessed the Barons and Spiders skate to a thrilling 4-4 tie on Sunday at New Hope.

Just like the season opener, the Spiders were first off the mark. Jason Yancey and Joe Long combined on the opening goal with some nice tic-tac-toe passing on a 2-on-1. Josh Cagle extended the lead to 2-0 with a slapshot from the point passed the screened Barons goalie.

And like last week, the opposition came roaring back as the Barons kept the Spiders pinned in their own end for large parts of the 2nd period. Spiders netminder Brian Dow stood tall in goal and controlled rebounds well to limit the Barons opportunities. The Barons finally broke through with three goals in less than four minutes late in the period to take a 3-2 lead.

The Spiders regained the momentum in the third period with Joe Long getting the equalizer with a nice backhand off a rebound over a sprawling Barons goalie. Just a minute later Jason Yancey continued his hot start, picking up a loose puck in the neutral zone and roofing a shot over the goalies blocker to give the Spiders a 4-3 lead.

Just as it looked like the Spiders would take hard-earned W, a harmless looking shot from the Barons deflected off a Spider and evaded Dow to knot the score.

Both teams had a chance to win in OT. Dow made an incredible save on a 3-on-2. The Barons forward coming down the right wing was diverted behind the goal but he was able to shovel the puck out front of the net to an unmarked Baron streaking toward the net. Dow was barely able to get a pad down to keep the puck out of the net. Final score: 4-4.

The tie moves the Spiders to 1-1-0-0 on the season. Next up for the Spiders is a matchup with the Venom on Sunday, November 13th. This will be the Spider franchise’s first ever meeting with the Venom. The puck drops at 7:45pm at the west rink of VMCC in Inver Grove Heights.