Spiders blank Mastodons, McCormick gets first Spider shutout

Nov. 11, 2012

The intrepid but absent captain of the Spiders, Jeremy Litton, played a superb psychological game somewhere from the darkness on the edge of town in a workmanlike win over the Mastodons Sunday night. Litton casually started a rumor (backed up by stats) of an unstoppable scoring force never seen before in AHA level C3 hockey. So far this year anyway.

This brilliant motivational ploy was all it took to bring out the A-game from all Spider players, who were on edge and steeled against an offensive onslaught from the other team.

Luckily, McCormick didn’t believe the hype. The final score was 5–0 for the good guys.

The game started out as a back-and-forth contest between the 40 yard lines like a couple of old ladies at the tennis club. Byland was seen helping an opponent off the ice after gently leveling him on a solid but legal “pokecheck.” Schuster and Johnson also tried to mix it up with a penalty apiece but the pachyderms couldn’t sustain any offensive power play pressure.

Their first power play opportunity finally woke up the Spiders. The team in red broke through the stalemate with a beautiful Lavigne tip in off the shot of versatile center/defensemen Pettengill, who flicked the puck ankle-high from the point after a sweet pass from grinder Pappone. With only 18 seconds left in the first period the Spiders were buzzing the not-so-angry Mastodons and the mighty Schwinn scooped up a wayward deflection and put it home through the 5-hole.

By the end of the first period, the Spiders found themselves in an unusual spot — up by two goals. The Spiders’ bench was murmuring with confidence but not too comfortable.

Like the first, the second period started out as a back-and-forth affair between the blue lines. Alas, the Mastodonian attack never happened, and Shuster effectively put them back to the ice age with a laser shot from the boards in the latter half of the second period. The goalie never saw the puck due to the pinpoint passing from Schuster to Sutton on the point and back to Schuster and through to the back of the net. Just like that. The Spiders weren’t done though. As if on cue with only 27 seconds left in the second, Schwinn broke away for a resounding and hard-hitting goal that sent bodies and sticks flying. 4–0 to start the third.

By this time the game seemed well in hand, a situation that Droullard tried to jinx by remarking on the impending shutout. Fortunately, Lavigne was able to sidestep Karma by luring a Mastodon into the sin bin with him for the only real antagonism of the match. Keepaway ensued, but the lineup of Freed, Schuster, Johnson et al. just couldn’t resist a wham-bam thank you ma’am tic-tac-toe goal to hang a five spot on the other side of McCormick’s effort.

The game ended on a last-ditch attempt by Karma to spoil the goalie’s glory with a last-second rush by a charging Mastodon on an ill-advised pinch by Schroeder. No one was hurt in the pile-up, nor was the red line breached, and the Spiders improved to 2–1. Congratulations to Bill on his first Spider shutout!

It wasn’t their night, but the ancient elephants won’t forget this one. Rematch January 2.