Spiders downed by Gold Rush 6–3

Feb. 13, 2017

Despite carrying 2–1 lead into second, fluky goals led to the Spiders’ third consecutive loss.

A defensive miscue late in the first opened the floodgates, as the defense (and goalie) got sucked toward a behind-the-net play, giving the Gold Rush an easy backdoor tap-in and a 1–0 lead.

But a Wingman-on-Wingman penalty led to a patented Berman snapshot to tie up the game with 31 seconds to go in the period. And on the ensuing faceoff, the Gold Rush captain was called for a trip, but Grotbeck was able to capitalize before the whistle, assists to Berman and Elling, to take the lead with just 3 seconds on the clock.

The Spiders resurrected their second-period snooze playbook, starting with the first shift, and by the first three minutes, the Spiders had dug a 4–2 hole, while the Gold Rush’s #9 B. Olk had himself a hat trick. A puck that sailed up and helicoptered through a Spider defenseman and behind McCormick closed out the second period with a 5–2 Gold Rush lead.

The Spiders found a bit of a second wind in the third, maintaining better possession and shot advantage, but it took until the two-minute warning for the Spiders to capitalize, following a Malibus-on-Malibus penalty, leading to Fritz sending a point “rocket” bouncing on net, assist to Jon “Reidell” Pappone, making it 5–3.

And while the captain was formulating when to pull the goalie, the Gold Rush immediately struck again on the next shift, making it 6–3 just 33 seconds after the Spiders had scored.

Final score: 6–3.

With only five games left on the season, and now at 5–9–1, the loss likely seals the Spiders’ golf tee-time schedule in April, barely holding onto 8th place by just a point over the 9th-place Gold Rush, but now two games behind the 7th-place Shame On Ice, and a likely insurmountable seven points out of the fourth and final playoff spot, currently held by the Black Ice. The AHA math equation the Spiders would need to solve would likely need the still-undefeated-in-regulation LED Nord (12–0–1–2) to be pushed up to C2 for the playoffs (something that has happened before), and three of the middle-of-the-pack teams go on unprecedented losing streaks.

The Spiders do control some of that destiny, playing those middle-of-the-pack teams over the final month of the season:

Next for the Spiders, back to Sunday night hockey, and back to New Hope, it’s the 5th-place Blade Runners, who won the first meeting in December 8–4.

Puck will drop at 7:15 Sunday night.