Spiders drill hole in Richfield ice, can’t catch Fighting Ice Fish, lose 5–2

Dec. 19, 2014

The Spiders came up way short in a pre-holiday matchup with Fighting Ice Fish at Richfield.

The team was into the giving spirit of the holiday season, making it easy for the Fighting Ice Fish to get ahead in the first, as they put away a tap-in right the crease. The team wasn’t worried, as the usual MO was to give up an early first goal. They should’ve been.

By the time winger Dave Schuster arrived from his holiday party early in the second, it was 2–0 Fish. The first power play of the game though went to the Spiders, but they spent the entire first unit shift in their own zone, generously turning it over at the blue line every single breakout. With a half-minute to go, the refs evened up the sides at 4-on-4. While Sutton sat, the refs made a “creative” call for a body check using his back behind the net, and put Vandenberghe in the box to give the Fish a 5-on-3. The Spiders did kill off the two-man advantage, but just as Sutton was leaving the box, the puck ended up behind McCormick, and therefore a 5-on-4 power play goal, and an empty bin.

Down by three, the captain rallied the Spider bench with some inspiring words of wisdom. It must’ve done the trick, as a perfect point pass from Droullard allowed Berman to work from Schuster’s office and got some puck luck off a defender’s back skate. At 40 seconds into the third, the comeback was on.

The comeback was short-lived, however, as a breakaway for Fish leading scorer #10 E. Merriman (6G+3A=9P in 5GP), who controlled play — and the puck — the entire game, got his obligatory marker and put the Spiders back in their three-goal hole.

Defenseman/Optimist Rob Droullard answered his own call by sneaking into the slot around the center from a perfect Grotbeck pass, and again found some puck luck of a defender’s shin pad and into the screened net. Spiders now down by the dreaded two-goal deficit.

With a buck and change remaining, McCormick headed to the bench for the extra skater. It only took a minute for McCormick to see the puck end up in his net on a Fish “blast” from the neutral zone. The exhausted Spider captain forgot to send McCormick back out for the ensuing faceoff, so the Spiders spent the remaining 25 seconds still with the extra attacker, giving the Fish more opportunities for another empty netter. But 5–2 was the way it would end.

Both teams were surprisingly even in the shots department, with McCormick getting 34 (10, 10, 15) plus the empty net goal. McCormick made some spectacular saves to give the Spiders a chance, and stymied the Ice Fish at every turn. On the other end the Spiders tested Ice Fish goalie J. Welch early and often, with shots from all over, but he was stingy with the rebounds, eventually making 33 saves on 35 shots (13, 10, 12).

After two consecutive wins, the Spiders return to form — and .500 in the standings (4–4), tied for third though the tie-ees each have a game in hand. The Fighting Ice Fish improve themselves to .500, at 3–3–1 in a three-way tie for 6th place.

With a week-long break coming up, the Spiders will rest up for the holidays, and hope to come back with a less generous spirit (and backcheck) against the second-place Mastodons (4–2–2).

Puck drops Sunday, Dec. 28, 7:45 p.m., back at Richfield.