Spiders open 2015–16 season with 8–3 win over Northern Horde; Henke with Hat Trick

Nov. 1, 2015

The last time the Spiders scored 8? The 2014–15 season opener…

The C3 Spiders returned to AHA action at West Side Sunday night to a chorus of neighborhood sirens and focus group testing from the Yackel facilities manager.

The Spiders faced an unknown team in the Northern Horde. The Northern Horde that the then-D1 Spiders faced in the Saturday Night Shootout in 2011 had moved up to C2 the following year, while a new Northern Horde formed at D2, eventually making their way to C3 in 2013.

The teams had barely finished their allotted two-and-half-minute warmups when the Spiders were already down by a goal, on a long wrister from the blueline hitting the top corner. Much like the MN Wild, the Spiders apparently require some adversity to get their game going.

Because less than a minute later, the Spiders tied the game back up, supposedly by Bredael via the five hole, from Henke and Grotbeck. (“Supposedly,” because the official scoresheet was still a work in progress…)

Bredael’s goal opened up the floodgates, as the hoarding of offense continued though the first. Three minutes later, supposedly Henke from Farner, and the next shift supposedly had Berman’s backhander in the net from Bredael and Lavigne. With four minutes to go, Henke supposedly got his second of the night, from Bredael. The first period ended with mystery hook that put Pappone in the box for the season’s first penalty.

In the second, the Horde again scored first, with a pinching defenseman scoring from Schuster’s Office™. Schuster supposedly got that one back after a long shift, from Johnson and Freed.

Late in the second, a mad scramble for a loose puck in the paint under McCormick ended up with two defenseman laying on the ice and a puck sitting on the goal line, despite a mysterious whistle that supposedly made it a dead play. Nonetheless, the Horde had closed the score to two, at 5–3.

A breakaway by Horde speedster Monahan almost made it 5–4 early in the third, but McCormick played it perfectly and the puck ended up in the corner.

Instead, despite trying to play defense-first, the Spiders’ goals kept coming. Berman supposedly got his second of the night, this time from Pappone. Which was supposedly followed soon after by a roofer by Farner, from Grotbeck and Henke, stretching the Spiders’ lead to four, 7–3, with well over half a period to go. A nine-minute stretch of forecheck/backcheck kept the scoreboard quiet, until with 3:41 to go, Henke supposedly caused the hats to rain onto the choppy ice from the audience of at least four in the Yackel bleachers. Single assist to Byland.

The clock finished out right into the Spiders’ strategy, with Lavigne in the box for a proximity trip.

Final score: 8–3

The last time the Spiders put up eight goals? A year ago on Opening Night 2014–15, with a shutout of the Marauders 8-zip. After going an unimpressive 2–6–1–1 in season debuts from 2004-2013, the Spiders are now on an opening-night winning streak.

Henke’s hat trick, the second of his Spiders’ career (first was Jan. 26, 2013), had special significance, thanks to his memorial this fall for his coach-mentor, in which he promised a goal the next time he stepped on the ice. Times 3, as it turned out. Well done, Dave.

Shots on goal were essentially even (29 for the Spiders, 10, 12, 7; 28 for the Horde, 9, 11, 8), as were the errant whistles, non-icings and U-Pick-Em faceoff placements.

Next up

Next up for the Spiders, longtime opponents the Royals. The Spiders and Royals last faced off in March, a game that sealed the Spiders’ April golf season fate. The Spiders and Royals first faced off exactly 11 years ago, Nov. 7, 2005, where the Royals had a slight advantage, as they would often for the first few years of the Spiders’ existence. Lifetime the record now stands at 6–8–2 in the Royals’ favor.

Puck drops Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. at the slightly closer confines of New Hope.