Loons win second round 6–3, but short-benched Spiders finally show some offense, defense

March 28, 2014

The Nighthawks narrowly beat the Sled Dogs at Braemar in the early game 4–3, meaning the Spiders were eliminated from championship contention before even taking the ice.

So the Spiders could play like they had nothing to lose, which is what the large Loons crowd that turned up at Braemar hoped they would do. Even the Vegas line had them down -3 before the game.

And sure enough, off the opening faceoff, the puck ended up in the back of McCormick’s net. Although the Spiders’ groans of here-we-go-again were drowned out by the Loons’ fans megaphoned loon call, that would end up blaring every Loon goal and every Loon save.

The clock read 16:51 as the Spiders asked the refs for a mulligan, meaning the Fighting Loons set the new Spider record at nine second for quickest first goal against, beating the old record of 14 seconds, set in December 2013 by … the Fighting Loons. In a playoff week appearance that already had its share of records, the Spiders did not want to set any more.

Sure enough, the short bench of the Spiders answered back to tie the game just four minutes later, with C. Cory Vandenberghe notching his first of the season for the C3 Spiders (and 5th overall on the season, as he plays on two other AHA teams), assists to LW Berman and D Schroeder.

The Spiders can be expected to spend their offseason working on center-ice faceoff backchecking, as it took just another 16 seconds for the Loons to answer back and reclaim the lead. They’d add another before the first period was in the books, and the Spiders were down by 2 with 34 minutes to go.

However, the second period opened in the Spiders’ favor, as a tic-tac-toe passing play in the corner turned into a pinch play by D. Rick Fritz to beat the Loons’ netminder and pull the Spiders to within one, assists to LW Berman and RW Droullard. It’s Fritz’s second goal of the season (which he plans to celebrate in Mexico, as he heads on Spring Break like most of the rest of the Spiders’ roster).

But like clockwork, the Loons matched the Spiders efforts, adding another just a minute later to go up 4–2, and another 5 minutes would add their fifth, putting the game essentially out of reach for the gassed Spiders.

The lone “Game Photo”: RICE

Plus, bad news for the Spiders, as RW Dave Schuster was dropped hard in the offensive corner under a Loon, causing two lower-body injuries, ending Dave’s night and season. The Spiders hope for his speedy recovery.

To close out the second, Spider D Litton was called for a slash as he chased down yet another Loon breakaway into the Spider zone. While he finally got a two-minute rest, the Spiders had to go on PK. And the PK unit did its job, though the Spiders almost lost another player, as D Rick Fritz blocked a slapshot in the upper-lower-body area to the point where medical attention was almost needed.

After two periods, the remaining 10 Spider skaters returned to the ice for the third down 5–2. And they somehow found some legs, holding the Loons at bay for an entire 17 minutes. A moral victory third period.

The lone Spider goal at 4:00 remaining came from D. Litton from the point, from a perfect pass from LW Freed from the corner. The goal is Litton’s second of the season, and first time in his nine-year Spider career he has notched more than one goal (for) in a season. Of course, tonight’s goal was just to make up for the goal-against that went off his stick and into the Spider net Wednesday night.

Just like the previous Spider goals, the Loons responded immediately on the faceoff, and actually got the puck behind McCormick and into the net; however, the play was blown dead by the ref, who had seen McCormick cover it up before being knocked backwards by the pressing Loons. Still 6–3 Loons.

With 2:33 to go, now-at-D Dr. Droullard got tangled in the defensive zone with a Loon who skated off with his stick, putting Droullard in the box for a much-needed 2-minute rest. The Spiders used the opportunity to practice their 3-on-1 line rushes, as the Spiders and numerous chances to notch a shorthanded goal. But the Loons’ Scholten was good for all of them. (Except for one that also snuck behind the line, but swept out before the ref could get in position; the theme of the night apparently.)

Back at full strength with half-a-minute to go, the Spiders were able to muster one 125’ shot, but time ran out and the Spiders yet again were in the losing column in the playoffs.

Final: Fighting Loons 6, Spiders 3.

Despite only 11 skaters, and just 10 skaters for half the game, the Spiders played a respectable game, with a team that had recently clobbered the Spiders 7–0.

McCormick saw 32 shots (10, 12, 10) by the Loons, and Scholten saw 24 (4, 9, 11).

Pool watch

The loss keeps the Spiders in the C3 playoff cellar, with one game to go.

The Fighting Loons, having beat the Sled Dogs on Wednesday, go undefeated so far, meaning the Loons/Nighthawks game Saturday will be for all the Pool B marbles and an invite to Sunday’s BIG dance.

The other C3 games, also at Braemar:

• Earlier, Nighthawks (1) held on against a surging Sled Dogs (4), who closed a three-goal gap late in the third, but lost 4–3.
• Ak Bars (4) shut out the also-winless Fighting Piranhas (1) 2–1.
• Wingmen (2) beat the Maroons 3–1, which should mean the Wingmen are on for Sunday’s championship, as they would have the head-to-head tiebreaker even if they lose on Saturday to the Fighting Piranhas.

Round 3 of the C3 playoffs heads to the beer-gardened BIG Saturday night. With AHA games starting at 8 a.m. Saturday, and outside temps expected to be in the mid-40s, the ice on all three rinks will surely be in its usually ruddy, grooved, speed-bumped, sandpapered condition as is tradition for the AHA winter playoffs.

The Pool B games are both on rink 2, with the Spiders vs. the Sled Dogs for the Toilet Bowl Trophy at 8 p.m. And the Nighthawks/Loons for the pool title at 9:45 p.m.

Head to Bloomington to catch all the action along with some Summit beer, or watch it on ahahockeynetwork.com.