Late Spiders comeback comes up short, lose 6–5 to Fighting Loons

Nov. 29, 2015

Game plan mirrors game from a year ago: Late Spiders rally comes up short, fall to Royals 4–3

The Spiders’ post-Thanksgiving pumpkin pie- and tryptophan-laden backcheck dug a big hole at Highland S Sunday night. The Spiders capitalized late, with Pappone having a career night in the helper column. His highlight reel setups, two to Schroeder and one to Noreen, who both had their first goals of the season, kept the Spiders in the running.

But the Highland fan of one apparently forgot her loon call whistle, which would’ve seen a lot of action. Because it was also a career night for #5 M. Protas on the Loons, apparently a D1 callup for that squad. He ended up with the Hat Trick on the night, plus an assist, plus a goal not counted (apparently video review was unavailable). Playing in front of their winless goalie, former AHA C3 tier administrator, Heather Rogers, the Loons doubled up the Spiders in shots in the first two periods — 22 to 11. And more importantly, held the most dangerous lead in hockey (in Minnesota, at least), 5–2.

Sure enough, before the first two minutes of the third were over, Schroeder and Noreen scored 21 seconds apart to make it a one-goal game. The optimism lasted almost 30 seconds, when Protas waltzed through the zone in front, around and behind the D, and added to the Loons’ lead.

Halfway through the third, the refs realized they had whistles in their hands, and began sending red jerseys to the box. First, Pappone, then Bredael, with the niftiest backward hook while being checked into the boards you’ll ever see. Despite a shorthanded chance, the PK wasn’t going to help the rally. So the refs sent a Loon to the box with just over two minutes to go, giving the Loons free reign to ice the puck. While they did a couple of times, on the final rush of the Power Play, with McCormick on the bench, Henke came out as the sixth attacker, and with his fresh legs, was able to score from the slot to again close the score to within one.

On the ensuing center ice faceoff, the Spiders kept with six skaters, and while they were able to get the puck into the zone, they never got a solid scoring chance, and the game ended 6–5, giving the Fighting Loons their first win of the season. For the second week in a row, and the third time this season, the Spiders are the cure for what ails these winless opponents.

Final shots were 33–24, with the Spiders outshooting the Loons in the third 13–11.

Standings Watch

The loss ends the win-some-lose-some pattern the Spiders had maintained so far, and knocks the Spiders out of second place, dropping to fifth — out of a playoff spot if the season ended today.

The good news, however, is that there are no more winless teams in C3 South for the Spiders to kickstart their season.

The Spiders will return to action next Sunday against the third-place Arctic Wolves, who are 3–2, coming off a 9–5 win over the Mastodons. Despite the two teams having been in C3 or D1 for years, the Spiders and Arctic Wolves have never met in winter season action.

Puck drops at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday at Wakota.

Spiders again grow for Movember

Once again, Spider “Mo Bros” are celebrating the month of Movember. With the facial growth spurred by David Schuster, in his sixth year of changing the face of men’s health, the Spiders encourage you to check out his Movember Mo Space before the end of the month to support men’s health.