Spiders Roll Over Roadrunners 4-1

April 10, 2010

By virtue of a late start time at BIG 1 today, the Spiders knew they controlled their own destiny in the C2 playoffs. With the Royals win over the Muskies, Aces over Jets, and the Bulls/Sled Dogs tie the Spiders had the pole position for the wild card berth into the single-elimination phase of the playoffs.

The Spiders came out exceptionally focused and captain Dave Schliesman got the guys in white on the board first. With just over ten minutes off the clock Schliesman pounded a centering pass past the Roadrunner goalie off a feed from Jim Maietta. Shawn Tromiczak added to the lead in the last minute of the first with assists from Aaron Bedessem and Brian Armagost.

With one of the Roadrunners in the sin bin for roughing, Schliesman made it a 3-0 game with another assist to linemate Jim Maietta. The Roadrunners finally got on the board off a slapshot from above the circle late in the second. JayHilden finished off the scoring early in the third to stake the Spiders to a comfortable 4-1 lead. Aaron Bedessem and Shaun Tromiczak picked up the final assists.

The 4-1 win moved the Spiders to 2-1 in the pool; the same record as the Royals. Since the Royals beat the Spiders 3-2 on Thursday, they won the pool on the head-to-head tiebreaker. Of the 2-1 teams that took second in their pools, the Spiders won the goal differential (+6) tiebreaker to take the fourth seed in the next phase of the playoffs.

The Spiders will face off against the top seeded Aces (3-0) at 6:45 p.m. Saturday evening on BIG 2. The other semi-final game will feature the Bulls (2-0-1) against the Royals (2-1). The winners of each semi-final game will meet on Sunday for the title tilt at 2:00pm on sheet #1 at BIG.

Attendance: 85 (if we're counting everyone watching through the glass at the Summit beer stand)