Spiders reel in Fighting Ice Fish, win 6–2

Dec. 4, 2011

The second week of a full bench helped the Spiders to a big win over Fighting Ice Fish.

Unlike past Spider ice-fishing outings, tonight’s game at Aldrich was relatively penalty- and drama-free.

Instead, the two middle-of-the-pack C3 squads (Spiders: 2–2–0–1, 8th place; Ice Fish: 2–3, 10th place) matched up well from the drop of the puck. The Fish got on the board first 3:37 into the game. But the Spiders, who have made a habit of giving up the first goal all season, regrouped, and under three minutes later, Cory Vandenberghe, scoring his first of the season (but second of the night; yes, he also starred on the same ice sheet earlier in the day with the C2 squad), assists to Freed and Litton, tying the game up.

At the 7:03 mark, Paul “Gamer” Berman, playing with a “lower-body” injury, put the Spiders ahead, assist to Dave “Also a Gamer” Schuster, in his first game back from an “upper-body” injury suffered in the Nighthawks game.

A hooking penalty against the Fish drawn by “Rag Doll” Litton gave the Spiders their lone power play of the game, duly killed.

Closing out the first, Chris Pettengill put the Spiders up for good, getting his second goal of the season, this time with his own stick instead of Byland’s, who got the actual assist tonight instead of the honorary one.

In the second, Jon Pappone added insurance 4:41 in, for his Spiders-leading fourth of the season, assist to Schwinn.

By 7:02 in, the Spiders found their way to the penalty box, as Schroeder was called for interference. That only served to give the momentum back to the Spiders, as once he was out of the box, Schroeder was sprung for a breakaway, only to be denied on the first, second and third whack at the puck, much to the chagrin of the smoked Ice Fish defense.

At the 11:14 mark, a LaCosse blast from the left point was tipped in the slot by Dr. Droullard for his first of the season, and putting the Spiders up 5–1. Thanks to AHA scorekeeper extraordinaire Paul McWithey, the Spiders bench got to witness Droullard’s Aaron Rodgers-inspired Touchdown dance following the goal. No Lambeau Leap, however.

Closing out the second, Vandenberghe game himself an additional two minutes of rest for tripping.

In all, the second period was all Spiders, as the team played a possession game, dump and chase, dump and shoot, dump and change. Though not quite 68 shots, the Spiders set the tone and controlled the game.

For the first half of the third, the momentum continued the Spiders’ way, culminating in a Jason Freed goal at 7:52 remaining, assist to Vandenberghe and Fritz. Then, the entire bench collectively decided it was time to give the Ice Fish a chance, and lost the ability to clear the defensive zone, connect on passes or win faceoffs. After a solid five minutes played in the Spider zone, the Ice Fish got back on the board on a second (or third) attempt after Bill McCormick stood on his head bailing out the Spiders’ backcheck on chance after chance. But with 2:27 remaining, that goal bookended the scoring, and Spiders closed out on to win 6–2.

Total shots were 27 by the Spiders (9, 13, 5), 22 by the Ice Fish (6, 7, 9).

The Spiders jump in the standings, all the way to fourth , for the time being, as the weekend’s scores continue to flow in, and improve to 3–2–0–1.

The Fighting Ice Fish drop to 2–4, and approximately 10th place still in 11th place.

Next up, the Ak Bars, who are still looking for their first win, sit in 14th, 0–4–1–1, coming off a 5–1 loss to the Diablos.

The Spiders and Ak Bars haven’t met since 2006–07 season, as the Ak Bars spent the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons in C2 before moving back to D1 last season, and coming close to meeting the Spiders in the playoffs. Back in the early D2 days, the Ak Bars/Spiders games were always good matchups, with former Spiders Anton Petsan and one-time captain Mat Ronnei, and the Ak Bars usually finding a way to win, except for the final meeting between the two teams on Feb. 4, 2007, where the Spiders made an epic third-period four-goal comeback to win 4–3.

It’s the second of this homestand at Aldrich, next Sunday, 6:20 p.m.

Game media