Spiders come up way short in playoffs

April 1, 2014

The C3 Spiders had the worst franchise “performance” ever in the 2013–14 AHA Winter Playoffs.

With a pair of 10-goal-differential drubbings, and decimated rosters thanks to Spring Break and late-season injuries, the Spiders 2013–14 playoff appearance will go down as utterly forgettable.

The C3 Spiders made their sixth consecutive AHA Winter Playoff appearance, if it can be called that. Finishing in third place, the Spiders were placed in Pool B with the best C3 team in the tier, the Nighthawks (14–2–3–1; 32 pts.), as well as the C3 East second-place Fighting Loons, and the C3 West fourth-place Sled Dogs, the team the Spiders edged out last season to make the playoffs.

First up, the Spiders’ largest bench of the playoffs was stunned by the dominating performance of the Nighthawks. The Spiders certainly had an off night, to say the least, but the Nighthawks had enough puck luck where they should’ve all played the lottery that night. The shocked Spiders dragged themselves off the ice after 51 partially runtime minutes, suffering their worst defeat since the 2007–08 season, losing an incredible 11–1.

And it was all downhill from there.

Friday night, the short-benched Spiders put on a respectable performance for the Loon-y crowd at Braemar, actually getting three goals on the board to the Loons’ six, quieting the megaphoned duck calls for a few minutes. But unfortunately the game led to two season-ending injuries for the Spiders, trimming the already short roster even shorter.

Saturday night, just eight skaters were available as the Spiders headed to the Summit-sponsored confines of the Bloomington Ice Gardens for the celebratory AHA playoff environment. However, the fans must have all been gathered at the beer garden during the Toilet Bowl Tilt on rink 2 between the Sled Dogs and Spiders, as there was maybe a dozen up on the rink 2 catwalk to witness yet another Spider drubbing. This time, the Sled Dogs made up not only for their winless run in the playoffs, but also for every other Spider win since Beginner School, with the final run-time buzzer mercifully sounding when the score was 12–2. That was the second 10-goal differential of the playoffs for the Spiders.

Needless to say, the Spiders would not be advancing past Saturday night. Instead, they advanced first to the beer garden, then back to rink 2 to watch the Loons come back in the third period to upset the Nighthawks with about 100 other Summit EPA-fueled hockey fans in what has to have been the most raucous, cowbell-toting AHA playoff environment since the Spiders/Lumberjacks on rink 1 in 2010–11.

On Sunday, the Loons succumbed to the Wingmen in the C3 championship in an incredible eight-round shootout, for the Wingmen’s first-ever AHA trophy. Congrats to the Wingmen, who have made the post-season every year but one since 2008–09, and finally make it all the way.

And full pool standings, based on tiebreaker rules:

The initial C3 pool seedings:

C3 Pool A (with regular season record):

1. Fighting Piranhas (12–4–4–0; 28 pts.)
2. Wingmen (13–4–3–0; 29 pts.)
3. Maroons (11–7–2–0; 24 pts.)
4. Ak Bars (11–8–1–0; 23 pts.)

C3 Pool B:

1. Nighthawks (14–2–3–1; 32 pts.)
2. Fighting Loons (13–6–1–0; 27 pts.)
3. Spiders (12–7–1–0; 25 pts.)
4. Sled Dogs (10–8–2–0; 22 pts.)

D1 results

For posterity, since some of these teams may move up to C3 next season, the Fighting Loons franchise redeemed themselves with a 4–3 win over the Mill City Marauders in regulation. That’s two consecutive seasons for a Fighting Loons team to take the D1 trophy. Of note, former Spider Eric Ackermann has been on both those championship teams. Add his Spider hardware, and that’s three “rings” for Eric. Congrats!