Hockey starts tonight!

Oct. 28, 2012

The puck drops tonight on the 2012–13 Winter Season for the C3 Spiders, taking on the Sled Dogs at 8:30 at SLP E.

It’s the Spiders second season in C3, eighth season in full Winter action, and ninth overall including Beginner School.

Same for tonight’s opponent, the Sled Dogs, who debuted in the 2004–05 Beginner School class as well. That season, the Sled Dogs had the upper hand, shutting out the Spiders 3 games to none, by a combined score of 29–11.

Since then, the record has evened out, with the Spiders going 3–2 since 2007, with the most recent game, Dec. 18, 2011, going the Spiders’ way, 2–1.

Former/founding Spider Marc Berris, right, from the USA Hockey magazine spread in April 2005, is actually greeting potential voters, planting the seeds for his eventual campaign run for Hennepin County Judge in 2012.

The long and storied Spiders/Sled Dogs rivalry has even garnered national press. Although that press had less to do with the rivalry and more to do with the impressively lousy quality of hockey on the ice.

With the NHL labor talks at a potential season-killing impasse, it may be your only chance to see adult-level hockey — even if impressively lousy — in Minnesota this winter.

So head to St. Louis Park and catch the opening of the C3 Spiders’ 2012–13 Winter Season.