C3 2011–12 post-season recap

April 17, 2012

Appearing in their fourth consecutive AHA post-season, the Spiders played three one-goal games, winning one, losing two, a record sufficient to advance to summer hockey and/or golf season.

The Spiders qualified for the sixth and final seed of the single C3 pool, thanks to their 10–7–2–1 record in the regular season. In the weighted seeding, the Spiders faced seeds 1, 2 and 3 in the round robin.

Thanks to the league’s attempt to create a tournament weekend in Bloomington, the Spiders, along with the rest of C3, having sat for a full 25 days since the end of the regular season, were scheduled in a compressed, three-games-in-20-hours pool schedule starting Friday evening, through Saturday afternoon.

First up, the no. 2-seeded Wingmen, whom the Spiders had beat in the last 25 seconds in last year’s pool play. This year was the Wingmen’s turn to turn the tables on the Spiders. Having climbed to a 2–0 lead in the first period, and a 3–1 lead halfway through the second, the bottom fell out on the BIG 2 “ice,” the Spiders got into penalty trouble, and the dreaded two-goal lead turned into a 4–3 loss by the time it was over.

Bright and early Saturday morning, the Spiders arrived back in Bloomington before sunrise hoping to find a fresh start on the not-so-fresh BIG 3 ice sheet. Instead, the third-seeded Nighthawks struck first, going up 1–0 late in the first. But a last-second Flying V buzzer beater tied it back up and gave the Spiders a morning jolt heading into the second period. The caffeine kicked in, and the Spiders outshot the Nighthawks 12–3 in the second, and put up two key goals, from Freed and Farner. The one-man march to the penalty box in the third gave the Nighthawks ample power play time to come within one. But the final buzzer sounded, and the Spiders had what would be their lone victory of the 2011–12 post-season under their breezer belts, a 3–2 win.

With five-and-a-half hours of rest, the Spiders returned to the same BIG 3 dressing room C most of the team had used earlier that morning, to don their same soggy gear, and skate on the same choppy BIG 3 ice, that was slightly worse for wear after the four games since the morning. Unlike the morning game, the Spiders offense and defense was on nap duty, as the first-seed Puck Hounds, who had already lost two straight, finally found their offense and got up 3–0 by early in the second period. The Spiders finally struck back 6:34 into the second period, with a Schwinn breakaway beauty. But the celebration was short-lived, as the Hounds reclaimed the three-goal lead on the ensuing faceoff. It wasn’t until the third that the Spiders got into gear, with goals by Freed and Johnson, but it was too little too late, and a minute of extra attacker time couldn’t close the deal. Final score: 4–3 Puck Hounds.

With no semi-final thanks to the single pool, the final C3 round robin game on Saturday — Fighting Piranhas over Mintalar Moose 4–1 — turned out to be a preview of the C3 final on Sunday. Sunday morning, the Mintalar Moose, in their first year in the AHA, brought home the C3 hardware thanks to their 2–1 win over the Fighting Piranhas.

Congratulations to the Moose, whose team leadership got a taste of a championship in the 2011 Fall Tournament with the Spiders, and turned their solid development approach and strong team play into a winning first season and championship-caliber run.

2011–12 C3 Post-Season, by the numbers...

2011–12 Playoffs C3 Standings
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	P	GF	GA	PIM	Diff
* C3 Champions
Mintalar Moose *	4	3	1	0	0	6	13	11	24	+2
Fighting Piranhas	4	3	1	0	0	6	13	4	26	+9
Nighthawks	3	1	2	0	0	2	8	8	20	±0
Spiders	3	1	2	0	0	2	9	10	22	-1
Wingmen	3	1	2	0	0	2	6	11	24	-5
Puck Hounds	3	1	2	0	0	2	9	14	20	-5

2011–12 C3 Post-Season Scoreboard
Date	Time	Arena	Home	Result (Home)	Away	Result (Away)
Fri., April 13	4:45 p.m.	BIG 1	Nighthawks	2	Mintalar Moose	3
Fri., April 13	6:00 p.m.	BIG 2	Wingmen	4	Spiders C3	3
Fri., April 13	6:15 p.m.	BIG 3	Puck Hounds	1	Fighting Piranhas C3	4
Sat., April 14	7:45 a.m.	BIG 3	Nighthawks	2	Spiders C3	3
Sat., April 14	8:00 a.m.	BIG 1	Wingmen	0	Fighting Piranhas C3	4
Sat., April 14	8:45 a.m.	BIG 2	Puck Hounds	4	Mintalar Moose	7
Sat., April 14	2:00 p.m.	BIG 2	Wingmen	2	Nighthawks	4
Sat., April 14	2:45 p.m.	BIG 3	Puck Hounds	4	Spiders C3	3
Sat., April 14	3:00 p.m.	BIG 1	Mintalar Moose	1	Fighting Piranhas C3	4
Sun., April 15	10:45 a.m.	BIG 2	Fighting Piranhas C3	1	Mintalar Moose	2

C3 playoff pools

Initial playoff seeding was as follows:

Puck Hounds (16–4–0–0; 32 pts.)
Wingmen (15–4–0–1; 31)
Nighthawks (11–6–3–0; 25)
Mintalar Moose (12–8–0–0; 24)
Fighting Piranhas (10–7–2–1; 23)
Spiders (10–7–2–1; 23)

D1 results

And for posterity, the D1 results, as some of these teams may move up to C3 next year. The Silverbacks, reminiscent of the early years of the Chaos, claimed their third title in as many seasons (Beginner in 2009–10, D2 in 2010–11), knocking off last season’s D1 West cellar-dwellers the Gold Rush.

2011–12 D1 Post-Season Scoreboard
Date	Time	Arena	Home	Result (Home)	Away	Result (Away)
Fri., April 13	6:30 p.m.	BIG 1	Fighting Loons D1	1	Gold Rush	2
Fri., April 13	7:45 p.m.	BIG 2	Blade Runners	4	Mastodons	0
Fri., April 13	8:00 p.m.	BIG 3	Icedogs	3	Silverbacks	4
Sat., April 14	8:45 a.m.	EPCC 1	Fighting Loons D1	1	Silverbacks	1
Sat., April 14	8:45 a.m.	EPCC 3	Icedogs	4	Mastodons	3
Sat., April 14	9:00 a.m.	Highland N	Blade Runners	1	Gold Rush	1
Sat., April 14	3:45 p.m.	BIG 2	Icedogs	1	Fighting Loons D1	7
Sat., April 14	4:30 p.m.	BIG 3	Blade Runners	0	Silverbacks	1
Sat., April 14	4:45 p.m.	BIG 1	Gold Rush	5	Mastodons	3
Sun., April 15	12:30 p.m.	BIG 2	Gold Rush	1	Silverbacks	2 SO