Spiders skate to tie with Lumberjacks to open season

Oct. 27, 2008

Winter started with a bang — and a whistle (or 15, to be exact) — to start the AHA Winter Season last tonight in Bloomington. And it ended undecided in OT.

Mother Nature knew it was the start of hockey season, and gave an appropriate early-winter-in-Minnesota backdrop, keeping away all but two stalwart fans to fill the BIG bleachers for this late-night season opener.

To start the first, the Lumberjacks’ #74 J. Drisocoll set the tone for the evening by getting the gate for tripping precisely 45 seconds after the puck dropped. Just under a minute later, penalty box stalwart Paul LaCosse, who not 5 minutes earlier in his pre-game interview expressed resentment at the local press referring to him as Mr. Cooler, found his way to the far bench for a two-minute rest.

Though this would be the pattern all night — Lumberjacks get called, Spiders negate the power play by getting called (which happened for three of the five Spider penalties, with one more offsetting) — the Lumberjacks ended up doubling down, ending up with twice as many penalty minutes (20–10) for the night. Sadly, 30 PIM is not a Spiders record. But, because there were no misconducts handed out, this actually was a new Spiders franchise record for both total game penalties (15) and total opponent game penalties (10). Congratulations!

On to the scoring.

With a four-on-four in the first period, Spiders right wing Lee Martini, who was graciously subbing for the thin Spiders’ bench, found the back of the net, retrieving his own rebound following a shot on net, on assist by new Spider Luke Baker, at 7:16.

The Lumberjacks answered 3 minutes later, at 4:08, tying the game.

Fast forward through a few penalties, and at 10:57 in the second, the Lumberjacks got a go-ahead goal, 2–1.

Fast forward through a few more Lumberjack penalties, and the Spiders find themselves late in the second with, first, a Power Play, then, following his first-intermission admonition of the entire Spiders crew for penalty trouble, Spiders captain Brad Caron decided to see what all the fuss was about in the cooler, and negated the Power Play. Not to be outdone, one, then two more Lumberjacks asked for a two-minute break from the action, stuffing the BIG penalty box full of Lumberjacks and giving the Spiders a 4-on-3. Following some possession hesitation, defenseman Brian Armagost finally got the PP unit under control and found the net, and tied the game.

The third period was relatively quiet, only two Lumberjack penalties. But as the time ticked off the clock, the Lumberjacks put increasing pressure on the quickly tiring Spiders’ legs. Following a timeout with :57 remaining, the Lumberjacks mounted numerous odd-man rushes only to be denied by new Spiders goalie, Amber Obermoller, who stood completely on her head to maintain the tie. It was the final 3-on-1 Lumberjack rush that found the net ... after the buzzer. On to OT.

With the AHA’s runtime rule for overtime in effect, a couple of play stoppages and, of course, two more penalties (this time offsetting), there wasn’t much hockey to be had in OT. And by 11:57 p.m., the time ran out.

The two teams were evenly matched throughout the night, with the Spiders’ Amber Obermoller and the Lumberjacks’ sub goalie Jenn Colling both keeping each team in it. So it’s only fitting that the teams skate away with a 2–2 tie, and a point each in the standings.

Next up for the Spiders, a post-Halloween matchup with former Spider Dave Schaefer and the Diablos, whom the Spiders scrimmaged the week before the season.

Game media

Game photos courtesy Cory Vandenberghe’s fan club.

The full sin bin.

For all game photos, see the Spiders Photo Gallery.