Spiders go ice fishing, catch limit

Jan. 17, 2010

In the first of two back-to-back on the big ice at Eden Prairie, the Spiders came up big against the third-place Fighting Ice Fish, the final team in D1 West for the Spiders to face. Coming into tonight, the Fighting Ice Fish sat comfortably at 7–2 in third place. The Spiders, coming off last week’s win over the Knights, were clinging to eighth place at 3–6.

The first period saw both teams playing conservatively, with the Spiders putting only three shots on net, to the Ice Fish’s six, all dutifully stopped by netminder Obermoller. The only change on the scoreboard were two penalties, one to D Cooler LaCosse for a hold in front of the net. It was offset, however, 59 seconds later by an Eppinger body check.

At 12:25 remaining in the second period, the Spiders broke the stalemate and got up 1–0 thanks to Aaron Bedessem, assist to Christian Heitzman. At 8:58, LW Caron (C) would give the Fish’s power play unit another chance with a trip on the sideboards. But the Spider PK unit was ready to go.

With just under 4 minutes remaining in the second, D LaCosse (+3?) sent a point-shot straight through on the ice, and found the bottom right corner, putting the Spiders up 2–0, assist to Bedessem. And closing out the second frame, RW Flannery gave the Spiders a three-goal advantage, apparently with assist to Litton (+4?).

Opening the third, the Spiders continued to control play at both ends of the ice, and at 14:38, a wicked snapper from the right point from D Herman found the far corner, assist to C Johnson and Spiders’ lead to 4–0.

With the game slipping away, the Fighting Ice Fish saw their opportunity to get on the board another way, getting four consecutive penalties, including a double up from a Patronski rough (drawn again by Litton’s head, neck and spine into the boards; Spiders fans all warmly recall the Ice Fish’s Patronski, he of the early line change), and a Hammel trip (drawn by Bedessem), though Baker obliged the refs since his number was 6 as well. With Baker returning to the ice, the Spiders began their 5-on-3 opportunity. That opportunity was cashed in 55 seconds later, with a Armel finally getting his first goal of the season, assists to Baker and Yard (also first point of the season, much to his chagrin).

The Spiders scored again with just 1:44 remaining, much to the chagrin of Keith Brooking, with a top-of-the-circles “shot” by D Droullard cleaned up by RW Heitzman, assist to Schlias. With the score at 6–0, the Spiders put their backchecking unit on the ice featuring sometimes-goaltender C Ackermann. He made a valiant effort to stack ’em in front of a collapsed Ice Fish forward line, but their tic tac toe found the back of the net to erase the donut with just 1:27 remaining.

A final 7-second sin bin sit for Baker (tripping) closed out the game. Spiders win 6–1!

The Spiders played a strong game all around, putting 25 shots (3, 6, 16) on the Ice Fish’s Peterson. Obermoller saw a meager 13 shots her way (6, 3, 4), stopping all but the final one.

With the win, the Spiders hold their sole possession of eighth place, with a 4–6 record and 8 points, just a game out of the middle of the pack. (Maroons, Lakers and Wingmen clog the tie for 5th place, all with 10 points.)

The Fighting Ice Fish will remain in third with their 14 points and 7–3 record.

Next up for the Spiders, they start over at the top of the list again, and in this case, the top of the standings, with the undefeated Chaos coming to Eden Prairie next Sunday, at 7:30 p.m., right in the middle of the Vikings/Saints game. Set your DVRs for that one; you won’t want to miss the action on the ice!