Game, season split with Les Etoiles

March 2, 2016

Maybe it’s the vaguely familiar-looking L.E.D. sweaters, or the prospect of game-puck souvenirs, but the Spiders have had two of their best games of the season against the Les Etoiles Du Nord, with McCormick putting on a show.

While the Spiders playoff hopes have all but flickered out despite recovering from the Nov./Dec./Jan. swoon, the Nord are virtually locked into a playoff spot in third place in C3 South. So the game wasn’t for post-season insurance. But ... for the all-important custom Nord game puck, cruelly snatched from McCormick back in November after a 3–0 shutout. And frittered away in the January loss. So the rubber match was for the Nord rubber.

Nord Rubber.

Instead, it was a very evenly matched game at Breck, with both goaltenders playing career games and getting all the puck luck.

The only place where one team had an advantage was the penalty box, with the Spiders getting flagged three times, with Dave Schuster getting his stick stepped on in the offensive zone in the first, Eric Grotbeck getting “drawn” into a check, which turned into the Nord’s only goal, a highlight-reel fake shot-pass and in from low on the side, and for the second week in a row, a momentum-killing late penalty by D. Litton, with a minute to go in OT. At least this one was a slightly more accurate call than last game’s.

But even in drawing a penalty, as Paul Berman did late in the third on a breakaway, the Spiders still came up on the short end of the Easton, as Berman was jumped from behind by the Nord’s Miller, and injured on the takedown, out for the rest of the game, and looking like he’ll be out for the season. To add insult to Paul’s injury, the call, a clear breakaway with no one in between Berman and the goalie, at the top of the circles, was not awarded a penalty shot, despite being clearly written in the rules as such. The Spiders have seen a lot less awarded a penalty shot in recent seasons.

Rule 616 – Fouled from Behind

(a) For the purpose of this rule a “breakaway” is defined as follows: A player who is in possession and control of the puck and is beyond his defending blue line with no opponent between him and the goalkeeper.

(b) A penalty shot/optional minor penalty shall be awarded to the non-offending team anytime a player is fouled from behind, or diagonally from behind (beyond the fouled player’s peripheral vision), and is denied a reasonable scoring opportunity during a breakaway.

(Note) The intent of this rule is to restore a reasonable scoring opportunity that has been lost by reason of a foul committed from behind during a breakaway situation. This foul from behind could include any action that would normally be deemed a penalty, including cross-checking, high sticking, holding, hooking, slashing and tripping.

But, it was Paul who got the Spiders on the board earlier in the second, on a perfect setup from Bredael’s Office™, playing on one leg, to Berman in at the side of the crease, who was getting ready for Spring Training, and batted the puck out of the air and into the net to tie the game. That’s Paul’s team-leading ninth of the season.

That’s where the score would stay. But only due to the stellar — and occasionally lucky — goaltending at both ends of the ice. At least three sure things in front of the Nord’s net, including a wide-open net and free puck there for the taking for Schuster, ended up stopped by the leaping netminder Scholl, who celly’d like he’d scored a goal. (Of course, had Schuster been in Schuster’s Office™ instead of at the doorstep, he undoubtedly would’ve scored.) And on the Spider end, late in the third, the Nords were staring at a very yawning net, and a goalie laid out on the other side of the crease … even the Nordie was celebrating his goal, while somehow McCormick dove back and stopped the puck with his paddle and swallowed it up, and the Nordie had to instead shake his head. The refs, shaking their heads as well, asked each other whether that was going to be on ESPN tonight.

Final score: 1–1. Final season series between the Spiders and the Du Nord: 1–1–1. Game puck will have to be on the line for next season. (That is, if the Du Nord don’t move up to C2; or the Spiders don’t move down to D1 … or Beginner School.)

Standings watch: One point from elimination

The lone point in the standings moves the Spiders up to Lucky 13 on the season, at 6–10–1, still in 6th place, still a game and a half behind the Mastodons, and three games behind the Ak Bars. But slightly out of the basement of the Wildcard race, tied with the C3 East Stars. Not that it matters, the Magic Number line is still staring at the Spiders. With a possible 19 points total on the season (with winning out), the Spiders can only hope to get the second and final Wildcard spot, currently held by the sinking — and C3 PIM line-leading — Ak Bars. (At 144 PIM and counting … 62 PIM more than the next highest C3 South team.) The top spot is now unreachable for the Spiders, currently held by the C3 East Hooligans, at 20 points.

Therefore, a single point — by the Ak Bars, or a win or two by any of the remaining six teams ahead of the Spiders at C3 — makes it officially golf season for the Spiders. Of course, stranger things have happened thanks to AHA math.

Next up for the Spiders, a quick turnaround to Sunday, taking on the 7–8–2 (16 pts.) Mastodons, who have gone 3–2 their last five. However, in their last five against the Spiders, it’s been all Mastodons. The Spiders haven’t beat the Mastodons since 2012, going 1–5, 2–9–2 if you count Mastodon-based summer squads. The last matchup, in mid-January, it was the Mastodons winning 8–4; and 5–2 back in November, the beginning of the Nov./Dec./Jan. swoon.

It’s out to historic Aldrich Arena in Maplewood for the first time this season, with an 8:20 p.m. start Sunday night.