Spiders shake off traditional Turkey Day rust, beat Maroons 7–4

Dec. 2, 2014

Unlike last week’s Royals game, where the 4–3 score didn’t tell the whole story, tonight’s 7–4 game was much closer than the final score.

The lead-up to this first winter season matchup with the Maroons since the 2011–12 season generated rampant taunting (of the self-deprecating kind) on social media, which included a request for the Spiders to retain their #Movember mustaches in an attempt to reduce skating aerodynamics.

Instead, the December clean-shaven faces of the Spiders finally figured out their breakout — and offense — and played a respectable C3-level game to get back in the win column.

Tonight’s game also saw the return of two Spiders off IR: Mike Schroeder, out since the first week of the season with an upper-body injury, was welcomed back with a yank to his upper-body on his first shift. And Dave Schuster, who went out with upper- and lower-body injuries in the second game of the season, was welcomed back with a body check against the boards to his upper- and lower-body.

Also for the first time since game 1, the Spiders got on the board first, though not til the second period. Both the first and second were chess matches, with both goalies making save after save. The scoring opened a minute into the second period on a shot from Schuster’s office by Jason Freed, with assists to Schuster and Litton. Less than a minute later, the Maroons answered back with unshaved Dana Thiede scoring, with assist to birthday-boy Brandon Hofer.

Just two minutes later, a sure-thing by the Maroons was turned away by McCormick, and taken coast to coast by Schuster, to put the Spiders up 2–1. But like clockwork, the Maroons got it back three minutes later. The period ended with both teams putting 10 shots on net, and the score deadlocked at 2 apiece.

Five minutes into the third, Eric Grotbeck got his first goal of the season off his stick (second overall), with assists to Fritz and Litton, and the Spiders again had the lead.

The Maroons’ Hofer got his second birthday gift of the night by the Spiders’ D, and again, tie game with just under nine minutes on the clock.

Of course, minute later, the Spiders broke the deadlock, on a gorgeous setup to Jason Freed, who went top shelf for his second of the night, from Mike Johnson getting his first assist of the season. Spiders 4–3.

To be expected given how the game went, the Maroons almost had the re-tying goal three minutes later, with a loose puck sitting for the taking in the Spider crease. But D Litton got there first to get it out of harm’s way, and Grotbeck carried up ice, make a perfect pass to Scott Bredael, who dished to Paul Berman, who beat the goalie high. Spiders up 5–3 with 5:38 remaining.

The Maroons began to press, and the Spiders were able to take advantage, with Berman sprung for his second of the night, assist again to Bredael.

The Spiders’ game plan fell into place on another breakaway, as Jason Mehling darted toward another sure thing. But George Farner was somehow called for interference as he crossed the blue line behind the play. But with two minutes to ice the puck, it was exactly what the Spiders needed. While the Maroons took advantage of a three-on-one advantage in front of the Spiders’ crease to add a power play goal, pulling the goalie on the subsequent faceoff didn’t work in their favor, as the Maroons puck collector put it right on Bredael’s stick in front of the open net. After Bredael sheepishly put the freebie home, the game finished out with the Maroons netminder back in place, and the final buzzer closed out the game. Final 7–4 for the Spiders.

McCormick ended up with 27 shots against (7, 10, 10), and the Spiders put 24 (9, 10, 5) on the Maroons’ Fabrizio, plus the empty-netter.

The win move the Spiders back to their comfort zone of .500, 3–3, and tied with the Royals for fifth place.

Next up, the tied-for-fourth-place Ice Gators (3–2–1), a team the Spiders haven’t played since the 2010–11 season, where the Spiders took all three games, and the Ice Gators ended up moving down to D1 for a few seasons. They returned to C3 this season after claiming the D1 East division title last spring, going 14–5–1–0. Lifetime against the Ice Gators, the Spiders have run the show, going 6–0, including two important playoff games in 2008–09, as the Spiders advanced to claim the D1 title.

Puck drops Thursday, Dec. 11 at 9:30 p.m. at Breck.