Spiders turn Ice Gators to handbags

March 4, 2011

The Spiders franchise started the hockey weekend with a very convincing win against the seventh-place Ice Gators at Saint Paul Academy’s arena. It would be a record-setting night for the Spiders with 10 of 11 skaters getting points in the game.

It started with a bit of worry in the locker room due to pre-game reports that Spiders’ goaltender Travis Fransen would not be in net for the start of the game due to missing the team’s flight. Or it was due to being stuck in the Friday rush-hour traffic. The details have not been provided. Fransen missing the start of the game was extremely worrisome for the Spiders because of a very short bench and no sub-goalie in sight.

Due to limited warm-ups for Fransen, the Ice Gators got the first tally halfway through the first period. The Spiders, however, were not going to let them get any momentum going as winger Jake Cison would answer on the following shift with a goal of his own, with the assist to defenseman Eric Schlais. With good chances for both teams throughout the rest of the first period, the goaltenders showed good poise holding the teams to a 1–1 tie at the end of one period.

The second period started with a penalty to the Ice Gators, sending the Spiders on the power play. The Spiders power play unit was ineffectual, as usual. However, once both teams were back to full strength, center Cody Yard would find the back of the net ending the 1–1 knotted game.

More goals would come at the expense of the Ice Gators as winger Cory “Five Hole” Vandenberghe would get a couple pretty passes from Christian Heitzman and Rob Droullard to sneak a change-up past the Ice Gators goalie.

To round out the score and make it 4–1 for the Spiders would be Dave Schuster on a hard-work goal. Another assist would go to Spiders center Heitzman.

The third period would prove to exploit a tired Ice Gators goalie after facing 35 shots in the first two periods. The Semper Fi line of Cison/Yard/Vandenberghe would get it started just 29 seconds into the third on a great feed from Vandenberghe to Cison. The next goal would come from Yard, due to the hard work of a push by defenseman Mike Schroeder as he went end to end eventually finding Yard on the back doorstep for a tap-in goal.

After that, Heitzman would go on a scoring terror, netting the next two goals. Assists would go to Jason Freed and Schroeder, respectively. Just seven seconds after Heitzman’s second goal, Freed would drive down and get a goal of his own, and Schuster would get an assist on the goal.

The Spiders would go on the power play after Cison would draw the ire of the Ice Gators goaltender. Cison, on a breakaway, drove the net, and instead of attempting to make a save, the goalie would take a swipe at Cison’s skates sending him into the boards.

With a man advantage, the Spiders would make the Gators pay, netting their tenth of game. Yard would get the final goal, and his first AHA hat trick, on some nifty passing from Schlais and Cison.

Throughout the game, there was plenty of physical play by the Ice Gators sending numerous Spiders into the boards, but none more than Cison. The Spiders would play a clean game, save for Yard who was sent to the penalty box in an offsetting penalty with Ice Gators’ penalty superstar Raymakers.

Though the Spiders only had 11 skaters, they managed to provide a ferocious forecheck, which kept the Spiders in the offensive zone for the majority of the game, and allowed them to get 53 shots on goal.

Jackson, the Ice Gators goalie, not only got on the board for his penalty, he got in the Spiders record book, as those 53 shots he faced are a new franchise record for shots on goal in a game. The previous record was set back in 2006 against the Nighthawks, where the Spiders put 52 on net in that 6–4 win. The 23-shot third period was only one shot shy of tying the most shots per period record, also set in the same Nighthawks game. While the 2005–06 Spiders managed three goals in 24 shots in the third, the 2010–11 Spiders upped the ante, tying the goals-per-period record of six, set last year vs. the Knights on 3/28/2010 (incidentally, on only eight shots!).

Closing out the season series against the Ice Gators, the Spiders are up 3–0, and 6–0 lifetime. And the loss effectively eliminates the Ice Gators from playoff contention, because though wins in their three remaining games could get them back in the mix, the head-to-head tiebreaker spells golf season for them.

The Spiders are assured a playoff berth, though have not locked up first place yet, with the 12–3–1 Puck Hounds still on their tail.

The Spiders will take on the 8–7–1–1 Royals in their next game, Sunday night at St. Louis Park.