Another Ak Bars third-period rally, a record-setting shot barrage, and yet another tie

March 20, 2012

In the last game of the regular season, Trey “The Wall” Cain stops a Spider record 58 shots to hold off the Spiders; Ak Bar center tempts Spider power play ... and patience.

The C3 playoff field was almost set before tonight’s rematch with the Ak Bars (4–11–2–2; 12pts.) at Richfield 2. The Ak Bars, after a slow, winless start, had forged a mid-season turnaround to climb out of the C3 basement, and put together solid games in front of more-than-solid goaltending by Ak Bar veteran Trey Cain. The Spiders (10–7–1–1; 22 pts.) locked a playoff spot with the Fighting Saints/Royals tie last weekend. Tonight’s result would just determine the Spiders final standings slot and playoff seed.

The last game between the Spiders and Ak Bars was a relatively even affair, with a third-period Ak Bars rally, held at bay by the Spiders’ backcheck and PK. Would tonight’s be any different?

The game started out in the Spiders’ favor. The Spiders controlled the flow of the game, had momentum, and chance after chance, eventually putting up a 20-shot first, to the Ak Bars’ lone shot on goal. After an early penalty, the Spiders continuing pressure resulted in the return of the One-Man Flying ‘V’ — a diving, soaring, end-up-in-back-of-the-net-after-the-puck, quiet the cowbell, effort by Cory Vandenberghe, who scored his fifth of the season and got the Spiders up by one, assist to Pappone.

With 3:30 left in the first, the C3-leading penalty getter could hold back no more. Ak Bars center #47 Pavel Zakharov got the itch to demonstrate for the cowbell-toting Richfield crowd of two how the AHA standards of play need not apply in the last game of the season, throwing elbows, body checks and sticks at any red sweater he could find. After two uncalled slashes on his first shift of the night, the refs eventually got their right-arm-lift exercises in while #47 was on the ice. And the scorekeeper got to work on his penmanship. His first sit came via an elbow to Rag Doll in the Spiders corner after getting beat to the puck. His second, at the buzzer of the first period, came via a body check on Rag Doll in the Spiders’ corner after getting beat to the puck.

The Spiders’ grand Power Play scheme to open the second, with plenty of time to strategize after an on-ice timeout, resulted in a lost faceoff and eventually a penalty against Vandenberghe for cross-checking as he tried to split through the defense at the side of the Ak Bar net.

The second period ended with another Zakharov box-sit, this time for hooking, another successful Ak Bar PK, and another 15 shots on the Ak Bars net, to just six on McCormick.

In the third, all that offensive energy with nothing to show apparently wore out the Spiders. After a LaCosse tripping penalty (who had his stick stepped on after being tripped himself behind the Spider net), the Ak Bars tied it up with 9 seconds left in his cooler time, on a gorgeous backhand by Trevor Tjelmeland from the slot that McCormick got a piece of, but not enough.

Four minutes later, the Ak Bars went ahead, after a neutral-zone turnover during a Spider line change, the Spiders’ defenseman still got a stick on the puck, but it wasn’t enough, and it was none other than #47 Zakharov who scored the goal (assist to former Spider Anton Petsan). Then, at 6:56 of the third period, the Spiders’ 15 pairs of eyeballs bore witness to something never before seen, let alone attempted, in an AHA hockey game: the Kayak. Zakharov, after running around the entire game trying to rack up his C3-leading penalty calls, instead ran up the middle of the ice and performed the Kayak goal celebration for all two Richfield fans to see. While this “move” apparently resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the Michigan High School league, the AHA refs were too busy rolling their eyes to put #47 in the bin yet again.

After another non-Zakharov Ak Bar penalty (and another fruitless Spider power play), Zakharov set off the fireworks display behind the Richfield 2 scoreboard with 3:26 remaining: Tallying his fourth penalty of the game. This time for tripping, which he followed up with an uncalled elbow to the head along the wall before the delayed whistle. While notching four minor penalties in a game is quite an achievement unto itself in an AHA game, it also put him at 20 minors for the season. Comfortably atop the C3 PIM leaderboard (and tied for third in all of the AHA), 40 PIMs typically earns you a spot in the bleachers for the next two games.

Rule 703 (a) – Accumulated Penalty Minute Suspension for the Winter Season (40/60/80 rule)

Any player accumulating 40 minutes in penalties in one Winter Season will be suspended two games.

Apparently assuming the rule wouldn’t apply in the last game of the regular season, Zakharov used the opportunity to demonstrate his Federal League skills on every shift, testing the patience and composure of the refs who had to keep whistling him, as well as the opponents who were continually the recipients of his malicious play.

Finally, while Zakharov sat in the box for his final two-minute rest of the night, the Spiders sorted out their ailing power play. On a rebound retrieved in the corner by Litton and sent to Mike Johnson waiting patiently in the slot, who banged home his first of the season: with a whopping two minutes and 20 seconds left in that season. Tie game.

After a few more Spider chances, leading to a late whistle with 7 seconds ticking away on the clock, Cain held on to the final Spider shot of the period, capping off a 23-shot frame. The Spiders called timeout, pulled the goalie for the remaining 2.9 seconds for the faceoff in the Ak Bar zone. Nothing doing, and onto OT.

In the runtime OT, the Spiders kept the momentum for the first half of the five minutes, getting a few solid chances, eventually adding up to two shots. The Ak Bars controlled the second half, putting up three shots on McCormick. But neither goalie would budge, and therefore, the score remained knotted at 2 apiece when the final buzzer rang and the cowbell was put back in the bag.

All those shots, despite nothing getting through the Wall, did earn the Spiders a new franchise high mark for shots on goal in a game: 60 (20, 15, 23, 2); besting the old record of 53, vs. Ice Gators last season (3/4/2011). McCormick, after a snoozer of a start, got more work as the game wore on, eventually seeing 16 shots (1, 6, 6, 3).

Standings

With the tie, the Ak Bars earned themselves a “moral” victory, adding a point, and finishing the season in 12th place, 4–11–3–2, 13 pts.

The Spiders also added a point to their standings total, but one that won’t move them out of sixth place to finish the regular season (10–7–2–1; 23 pts.).

With the Fighting Piranhas win over the first-place Puck Hounds, the C3 post-season invites are now final, though the final C3 standings — and therefore the playoff seeding — won’t be sorted out until Wednesday, when the Nighthawks take on the tied-for-seventh-and-just-out-of-the-playoffs-again Fighting Saints. Currently, based on tiebreakers:

1. Puck Hounds (32 pts.)
2. Wingmen (31)
3. Mintalar Moose (24)
4. Nighthawks (24; 1 game remaining)
5. Fighting Piranhas (23)
6. Spiders (23)

Congrats to the Puck Hounds, who held on to win the C3 division, after having come in second in D1 West last season behind the Spiders, and were the only team to gain a point from the Spiders in the regular season that year.

The Spiders now have a full 25 days to recover from the regular season, and figure out how to stay in shape, and maintain what’s left of their offense and defense skills before hitting the BIG ice on Friday, April 13, for round 1 of the C3 Round Robin.

Current week 20 C3 standings:

Game media

#82 in the box once, #47 in the box one of four times.

Johnson (#38), still goalless.

Droullard (9), carries through neutral zone with Berman (29).

The Richfield 2 cowbell-toting bleachers enjoying a third-period faceoff after an Ak Bars goal.