McCormick, Spiders shut out ‘Les Etoiles’

Nov. 15, 2015

It was throwback afternoon at the house that Wendy Anderson (or Herb Brooks) built.

The crowd of at least six that showed up for the late-afternoon matinee at historic Gustafson-Phalen Arena on the East Side of St. Paul instead of watching the Vikings (at home or in the Phalen lobby) were treated to a career performance by Bill McCormick, who shut down and shut out a team that could’ve been mistaken for the 1987–88-era North Stars, both in look and puck luck.

The Les Etoiles Du Nord entered the game undefeated, having beat the Arctic Wolves 4–3 and Northern Horde 5–2. The Spiders have never faced this team, and had no idea what to expect, other than that they lost twice to teams this summer backstopped by the Du Nord’s Michael Scholl.

After a few minutes of up-n-back, the first on the scoresheet was the last one on the ice, defenseman Brad Sutton, who had forgotten his shinpads, also forgot he was on D, as he was on the back door of the net for a tap-in off a Johnson rebound, assist also to Berman. Sutton also showed up two other times in the first period game stats, both for drawing the partial attention of the officiating crew.

North Stars?

The second period opened with Lavigne finding himself back in the penalty box, and the Les Etoiles began their shot barrage, many of which had McCormick standing on his head. Bill was in the groove, flashing glove, playing the puck behind, butterflying, and even making a Duby-esque redirection save reaching blind down and redirecting.

Halfway through the period, after a long forward line shift, D Litton delayed and dumped, allowing the full change. Grotbeck picked up the puck and after a grind, fed to Pappone who put it away for his first of the season. The Du Nord were called for a slash on the scoring play, getting themselves on the scoresheet for the first time. But Spiders were up 2–0.

Two shifts later, McCormick started a play carried up by Sutton, and handed off to Johnson, who stormed his way through the offensive zone, with his entire bench yelling at him to dump the puck. Mike dutifully ignored the suggestion, and from Schuster’s Office, shut his eyes and shot the puck into the narrowest corner Vanek-style, and put the Spiders up by 3. The goal gave Mike his first of the season, and gave Brad his first Spiders’ career “AHA Gordie Howe Hat Trick” (1G–1A–1 ... or more ... penalties).

In the third, the Les Etoiles still had chance after chance, but by this time, were growing increasingly frustrated with their lack of puck luck, missing open nets, deflected shots deflecting the wrong way, or otherwise aiming right for the apparent target on McCormick’s chest.

Puck briefly owned by McCormick.

While the Les Etoiles were whistled early for a body check, the Spiders continued their parade to the penalty box in the third, with two more kills to make, which added to the Etoiles’ scoring chances and shot totals. But if there’s one thing the C3 Spiders are skilled at — it’s the third period penalty kill.

The final minutes then ticked away, with McCormick keeping the donut on the board. And when it was over, McCormick had his first shutout of the season (5th in Spiders’ career). The ref awarded McCormick the game puck, which he cherished for all of a minute before it was confiscated by the Les Etoiles, who have customized a collection of pucks for their games.

Final shots were 31 for the Les Etoiles (8, 13, 10), and 21 for the Spiders (8, 8, 5).

Standings Watch

The Spiders are now tied for second with the Les Etoiles (but with the all-important head-to-head tiebreaker), a point behind the Royals, who beat up on the Mastodons 6–1. The Spiders face those Mastodons next Sunday. Despite being 0–1–2, in fifth place, the Spiders never seem to have the Mastodons’ number, unless it’s a zero, as that’s what the Mastodons did to the Spiders last season, the franchise-first-ever season shutout sweep.

Puck drops next Sunday, at 7:15 at New Hope, who will also hopefully be playing the highlights of the Vikings’ late-afternoon game on their TVs.