Wingmen edge Spiders in OT in season opener

Oct. 29, 2011

The Spiders debut at C3 earned a point in OT loss to Wingmen

The 2011–12 Spiders hit the choppy, grooved Drake ice tonight with a skid, and the Winter Season debut of five new Spiders — Paul Berman, Rick Fritz, Jon Pappone, Andy Schwinn, and in net, Bill McCormick — ended in an OT loss to the always tough Wingmen.

After having come from behind late in the second to tie the game, the Spiders couldn’t close the deal. Despite plenty of chances — 28, in fact — the Wingmen’s new goalie Latack was seeing everything the Spiders could throw his way. A top-of-the-circles sure thing by Jon Pappone was met with the flash of a glove, and set the tone for the night. Even an early 5-on-3, with both penalties drawn by the usual opponent rag doll #14 in a single shift, the Spiders offense couldn’t find the back of the net despite solid possession throughout. The Spiders’ first PK of the season in the first was dutifully negated by a draw by Paul Berman.

Instead of the Spiders, it was the Wingmen who got on the board first early in the second period, taking advantage of a Spider defender’s lost stick in the corner, and beating Spider netminder Bill McCormick, also in his Spider debut.

The Spiders continued pressing, generating shot after shot, from the slot, circles and point, going high, low, and even up in the air, with nothing getting past Latack.

Finally, late in the second, a broken play in the neutral zone, Litton poked the puck up to Schuster, who was playing with an upper-body injury sustained in the first period and lost his favorite Spaghetti Stick to boot. Schuster promptly fell down along the boards, but somehow got his stick on the puck while sprawled across the ice, and slid it up to a breaking Freed, who coasted all alone toward the net and beat the goalie short side to tie up the game.

And that’s how it would go through the remainder of regulation.

The Drake ice crew actually opened the Zamboni gates as the buzzer sounded, eager to get to the Halloween party on the SPA campus. After the crowd of one began the obligatory “let them play” chant, the game officials conferred and decide they could handle an additional five minutes (run time) for their ref wage. It only took 3. Though the Spiders opened with possession and put two shots on goal, they were easily gobbled up by the Wingmen netminder. But a scramble behind the Spider net led to a wraparound by the Wingmen’s Elling to seal the deal and give the Wingmen the extra point.

In the end, the Spiders dominated in the shots category, putting 10, 9, 7 and 2 in the extra frame, for 28 on Latack. The Wingmen had four on McCormick in the first, including a rattler directly off his cage, then 8, 5, and 1 in OT, which was the one that counted, for a total of 18.

The Spiders got to know the back of the penalty box intimately, getting called for five “penalties,” spending a total of 9:19 shorthanded:

• First period:
  • Eric Grotbeck, holding
• Second period:
  • Mike Johnson, getting pushed into the goalie (interference)
  • Mike Schroeder, hooking
• Third period:
  • Rob Droullard, being in the vicinity of someone falling (hooking)
  • Eric Grotbeck (again), for not skating backwards fast enough (interference)

To compare, the Wingmen 5-on-3 helped minimize their shorthanded minutes, spending 5:08 on the PK.

At this rate, Grotbeck, last season’s Lady Byng candidate, will reach 40 PIM by the end of the season.

While some of the penalties were “questionable” (going both ways), the officiating crew inexplicably pocketed their whistles when McCormick got steamrolled by a Wingmen hip in the second. In a ringing endorsement for hockey officiating everywhere, the ref reported, “I didn’t see what happened.”

Next up, the Spiders will try to earn their first win of the young season next Saturday against the Royals, who lost 8–2 to the Diablos on the Drake sheet earlier in the evening.