Spiders survive Moose attack, battle back for 2–2 tie in penalty-filled playoff game 1

April 3, 2013

The Braemar ice was tilted for two periods toward the Spiders’ end, but a little puck luck and patience helped the Spiders crawl back to a tie of the first-seed Moose.

For the seven or so fans who filled the classic confines of Braemar West, they got a two-for-one.

The first two periods were a completely different game than the third. About the only aspect of the Spiders’ game plan that they executed in the first 34 minutes was to have complied with the strict playoff uniform requirement.

The entire first period seemed to be played in the Spiders end, with shots initially tallied at 6–1 in the Moose’s favor, but video review showed a PK clear counted as a shot on net, upping the Spiders’ total to two. What was tallied at one though was the all-C3-leading Moose’s T. Turnquist getting on the board halfway through the period.

Down by a goal, the Spiders regrouped and decided that if they wanted any part of this game, their second better not look like the first. With an early offsetting penalty (a “body check” called on LaCosse was offset by the tripping call that caused LaCosse to fall on the tripper), the Spiders’ fortunes turned just a half a minute later, as pointman Sutton sent a puck with eyes through and found the far side of the twine. Tie game.

Then the parade to the penalty box began in earnest. First, McCormick called for a trip, Lavigne for interference, Schuster for a trip. Add another offsetting pair of calls to LaCosse and Vesall, and the Spiders racked up 10 minutes in penalties in the second period, six of them spent on the PK.

And somewhere in there, a bad bounce by D Litton (-2) beaten in the corner turned up in front of the Spider net and off the skate of his D partner LaCosse (also -2) and into the net for the Moose to retake the lead. In the end, the second looked almost as bad as the first.

Total second period shots: 12–3. And that might be being generous too.

The bench rally with Coach Cory at the helm before the third was that the Spiders had stunk up the joint so poorly in the first two, but were only a goal away from getting back in the game.

And sure enough, the Spiders starting getting chances, had some semblance of a breakout and passing attack, and a little less time in the penalty box. And finally, with just under 7 minutes remaining, Lavigne went to work in Gretzky’s Office, and found a ready and waiting Freed in the low slot, who banged it home and tied the game.

The remaining 6 minutes was a desperate, up-and-back affair, with both teams getting legitimate chances on net-front scrambles, including one premature Moose celebration, before the puck ended up free in the slot and cleared out by the Spiders.

The Moose called timeout with a minute and a half remaining. But nothing got past either goalie, and with no overtimes in the round robin portion of the playoffs, the game ended knotted at two apiece.

Shots in the third clearly show the turn of the tide, with the Spiders outshooting the Moose 14–6.

In total, McCormick held off 22 of the 24 from the Moose (6, 12, 6), and Chico Resch eventually saw 19 from the Spiders (“2,” 3, 14).

AHA scorekeeper John Fleischhacker got his exercise in entering the long list of penalties, with the total at 26 PIM for the game.

And given that penalty minutes are prominently featured in the playoff tiebreakers, the one extra sit could come back to bite the Spiders.

Playoff standings

In the other Braemar game, the second-seed Gold Rush blanked the Wingmen 2–0. Based on the PIM tiebreaker, that puts the Spiders in third place. But as AHA playoff history has shown, there are always ties in the round robin, and those single points tend to come in handy.

Next up

Round 2 is a Friday matinee. Take the afternoon of from work to come cheer on the Spiders as they take on the third-seed Wingmen on the BIG ice at BIG at 2:45 p.m.

The last time the Wingmen and Spiders met in the playoffs was last April, with the Wingmen overtaking the Spiders 4–3. And the game prior to that had the Wingmen losing in dramatic fashion to the Spiders in the final 25 seconds.

Game media