Loons eat Spiders

Feb. 22, 2014

Interim coach on hot seat

Pick any cliché you want, but the fact is the Spiders got beat soundly on Saturday night by the Fighting Loons 7-donut. Many theories were posited during the post-game post-mortems in the locker room and at the bar: too few defensemen (3), not enough backchecking, key players missing, lights in the eyes, radon, etc… Whatever the reason, the consensus seemed to be, “At least we got it all out of our system.” Time will tell. Time will tell.

As bad as the final score seems (and is), the game was relatively competitive through the halfway point of the second period. The first period saw tight back-and-forth action with no fisticuffs. Not that the players didn’t try. The refs were letting the teams play, despite a few Loon crosschecks on Johnson and hooking attempts by Sutton in the unfamiliar role of a backchecking forward. The first period ended scoreless.

Early in the second, a defensive miscommunication by the Spiders led to a Loon breakaway in the Spiders’ own zone to make it 1–0 for the Loons. The Loons scored their second goal late in the second period, the details of which were lost in the blitzkrieg of the late second and third period. At this point, however, the Spiders were not unfazed by the 2–0 hole, and in fact were quite comfortable in this familiar position. Unfortunately, the paucity of shots (7) in the second period produced no goals for the Spiders. The Loons goalie had no difficulty whatsoever blocking shots to the chest from the Spider sharpshooters. McCormick for his part showed Olympic form on several great saves, including a spectacular rebuff of a backside shot off a pass through the crease.

Then the wheels fell off. Part of the Spiders strategy (yes, there was a shred of forethought to deal with the short bench) was to rotate players between defense and offense. Pappone put up the white flag and Schroeder, who hadn’t skated in two — count ‘em: two — weeks took up the task at the blue line. Another Loon goal scored, but all was not lost yet going into the third period. So the Spiders thought.

In the third, things didn’t just go downhill, they went off a cliff. Loon goals came pouring off the avian sticks like so many lemmings. Nobody knows what really happened. Witnesses say that four horsemen were seen in the stands waving “Go Loons” signs. Locusts rained down from ceiling and frogs emerged from the faceoff dots.

Truth be told, the score could have been much higher for the Loons. Spider players were seen holding their ears to ward off the clanging pipes.

After all was said and done and smoke cleared from the ice, the victors shook hands with the vanquished and there was nothing left to do but sulk home for tequila shots or the bar for a beer and a philly cheese steak sandwich.

But not before a boneheaded incident exemplified the way things were going for the Spiders on Saturday night. With two, maybe three seconds left in the game, Schroeder corralled the puck from behind his own net and wound up for one last slapshot at the Loon goaltender’s chest. From his own goal line he sent a blistering puck across the ice in frustration — and straight into Sutton’s backside at the top of the circle. The buzzer sounded but could not be heard from all the laughter coming from the refs and his own bench.

Ah, good times, good times.

But ... no record

The five goals against in a period isn’t a Spider record. That high-water mark is eight, which happened twice in the 2007–08 season, both against the Jets. And that season (and game) was also the last time the Spiders gave up 5 in a period. Since then, the highest goals against in a period was four, on Nov. 12, 2011, in the third period against the Nighthawks.

The Diablos are the last team to score at least 7 goals against the usually stingy Spider defense, on March 7, 2010, when they put up 9 in a 9–4 win, incidentally at New Hope as well.

And finally, the last time the Spiders put up the donut was way back on Nov. 22, 2009, against the Fighting Piranhas, who won 2–0. Remarkably, it’s only the second shutout starting with the 2008–09 season, since we don’t count the three donuts in the 2007–08 season, the first after the team split and moved up to D1. But in total, the Spiders have been shut out only 7 times in the Beginner/D2/D1/C3 team’s history. That’s 203 total games played (regular season + playoffs).

Standings watch

The Fighting Loons are now on the Spiders’ doorstep. Their win improves the second-place loons to 10–5, 20 points, and just a point behind the first-place Spiders (10–4–1, 21 points).

Next up for the Spiders, a Saturday matinee with the seventh-place Fighting Ice Fish (6–7–2; 14 points). They are coming off a 4–4 tie of the third-place Fighting Piranhas on Saturday, who have now gone 1–4–1 in their last six, after clamping down on first place for most of the first half of the season.

The Spiders’ previous game with the Fighting Ice Fish went the Spiders’ way 4–1 back in December.

Puck drops at 5:10 back at Aldrich.