Spiders get first win of 2006–07 season

Nov. 11, 2006

In the Spiders’ second game of the 2006–07 season tonight against the Yellow Jackets, the Spiders came away with eight goals, the highest goal production ever for the Spiders.

The Yellow Jackets were first to the scoreboard, with a goal at 13:39 in the first. The Spiders’ Jim Maietta answered with an unassisted goal 7 seconds later! A Yellow Jackets penalty two minutes later led to a Power Play goal by left wing Ben Tesch from defensemen Mike Montgomery. And rounding out the first period, left wing Bruce Gustafson scored at 7:32 from Dave Schaefer.

The second period saw far more penalties than scoring. The Yellow Jackets came out hustling and put on good pressure. So the Spiders started seeing the penalty box, enough to make an absent Paul LaCosse proud.

The lone second-period goal for the Spiders was left wing Ryan Herman from Doug Thorson at 8:52.

At least the third had more goals than penalties:

• At 12:34, center Doug Thorson, from right wing Jim Maietta and defenseman Jeremy Litton.
• At 8:57, right wing Jim Maietta, unassisted.
• At 3:22, center Doug Thorson, unassisted.
• And finally, at 2:54, left wing Ryan Herman, unassisted.

With last season’s penalty king Paul LaCosse’s absent again, the Spiders made him proud by keeping his bench in the cooler warm:

• Second period, at 13:49, Mike Armel, for slashing.
• Second period, at 12:13, a cupless Lee Martini, for roughing.
• Second period, at 3:27, an offsetting penalty for Ryan Herman for unsportsmanlike conduct.
• Third period, at 14:52, Lee Martini, still cupless, still getting called for roughing.
• Third period, at 12:04, an offsetting penalty for Mike Armel, for getting slashed (er…), slashing.

They were, of course, all innocent. The penalties led to three penalty kills, which the Spiders effectively killed off.

Goalkeeper Jeff Keacher looked great in net, keeping the Yellow Jackets off the scoreboard the remainder of the game, stopping 14 of 15 shots (5, 2, 8).

For the second week in a row, Lee Martini was not first out of the dressing room. Sandbagging it, Lee? The honor this week goes to Ted Samsel.