Spiders shut down Chaos, win 4–0 in first playoff game

April 5, 2011

The Spiders clean-sweep Chaos, complete season turnabout.

A sizeable, raucous crowd of 27 turned out at BIG early Tuesday evening to witness the Spiders take on — and shut down — the Chaos in the first round-robin playoff game. Having already swept the Chaos 3–0 in the regular season, the Spiders made it an even 4–0 tonight, by winning 4–0.

The Chaos brought the Chaos Brand of Hockey® to the BIG 3 Olympic ice sheet. But the Spiders brought their forecheck and backcheck, taking advantage of the larger sheet to control the play. The chances that the Chaos had were swallowed up by Fransen, or blocked out front by the D (or Pettengill, who gave up his pads to gametime-decision Schuster, yet still went down to block a shot).

The first period saw plenty of up-and-back action, and both teams trying to set the pace and test the goalies. It wasn’t until late in the first period that the Walhberg line got the Spiders on the board. A Chaos clear held in the zone by Litton, down to Wahlberg, and finally to Schuster on the doorstep, who demonstrated why he shouldn’t have been an unhealthy scratch for the game.

To close out the first, the Semper Fi line made it 2–0 on a perfectly executed, gorgeous tic-tac-toe, Vandenberghe to Cison to Yard.

In the second, the refs found their whistles, and began sending various and sundry skaters to the penalty box, starting off with the Chaos’ Sommerness for a trip, followed Vandenberghe for a cross-check, the Chaos’ Neugebauer for another trip, and Schuster for a hook. Neither team’s power play unit managed to convert.

With suspense still running high and the BIG crowd on the edge of their seats as the third period began, the Spiders finally began to close the door on the Chaos, as d-man Schroeder drove through a tight Chaos backcheck down the left boards and behind the Chaos net, and made a perfect setup to a waiting Johnson right in the slot who banged home the puck into the waiting net, at the 1:19 mark of the third.

Then, as the clock neared nine minutes, a loose puck at the Spider blueline meant a battle down the boards, Heitzman picked up the puck and brought it around, finding Grotbeck, who sprung Pettengill into the zone, who made a “wicked” move on the goalie, sending a changeup backhand at the near post. Only the goalie had set up at the far post anticipating a patented Pettengill forehand. As Fransen said, “There was no way he was gonna get there.” Spiders 4–0 at the 7:56 mark of the third.

Down 4-0, the refs whistled some more extracurriculars, Sommerness (again), for a body check, Flannery for a hold, then Flannery and Farner offsetting for offsetting each other at the Spider blueline. While they sat it the box, Chaos Corder decided to join them, after a trip with 2:36 left on the clock. Finally, the BIG clock started winding down, and the final horn blared, and the Spiders congratulated themselves on a big win.

With the shutout, his second in the 2010–11 season, Fransen stopped all 15 pucks his way. The scorekeeper marked it as 5–5–5, though with an asterisk, as she said in her post-game reporting. The Spiders sent 31 on the Chaos’ Casey Johnson (12, 10, 9), who stopped 27.

With the win, the Spiders find themselves alone atop pool C, as the other pool matchup, last night between the Diablos and Wingmen, ended in a 2–2 tie.

And finally, the Spiders now find themselves in an unfamiliar place. In franchise history, the Spiders are now up 4–3 over the Chaos in Winter League play (4–3–1 including the 2010 AHA Fall Tournament). While there were some close games — and some not so close — this season, one year after the last loss to the Chaos, the Spiders can officially say they have broken the Chaos Curse.

Next up for the Spiders, it’s the Wingmen, backed by former Spider netminder Jeff Keacher. Head back to BIG, again on the Olympic sheet, for the second round-robin playoff game, Friday 7:45, a family-friendly start time.