Leafs crush Spiders

Feb. 25, 2018

Pick your metaphor, it’s likely applicable.

In a likely must-win situation to keep playoff hopes afloat, the Spiders had their worst showing of the season, losing 7–1 to the Leafs Sunday night at Richfield. The previous low-water mark this season was the 5-zip loss to the LED Nord. And the last time the Spiders lost by at least six? Way back in the season finale of the 2014–15 season vs. the Mastodons, 6-zip.

The Spiders looked sluggish from the puck drop, making tape-to-tape turnovers in all zones, allowing the Leafs to own the ice. The Leafs’ first goal came at 6:40 remaining of the first, followed by their second at 5:24, and despite a distinct kicking motion, apparently neither ref was paying any attention to the puck.

Since ahaspiders.com has had to feature USA Hockey rule PSAs the last two weeks, to keep the trend going:

Rule 617 (c)

A goal shall not be allowed if the following occurs:

(1) An attacking player kicks the puck directly into the goal or a kicked puck deflects off any player, including goalkeeper, prior to entering the goal

In the second, more like the first, with the Leafs up 4-zip after two.

With a lock on the win, the Leafs sat back a little in the third after scoring early, and the Spiders were able to generate a few more chances, eventually scoring on a Johnson slot spin-o-rama, assist by Sutton, with just over five minutes to go. The Leafs quickly answered to go back up by six. Rag Doll drew the obligatory knockdown call, and the Spiders had plenty of chances on the resulting power play, but the Leafs sub goalie, Trey Larson, normally of the D1 Wolfpack, had an answer for everything that got through.

The final insult came with just 9 seconds on the clock, as the Leafs shot from behind the goalline, and deflected in off the Spiders’ D’s stick.

Had there been more time on the clock, the Spiders definitely would’ve opted for the run-time clock with the six-goal differential.

Final score: 7–1.

The Spiders did win in two key categories:

• Zero penalties (to the Leafs’ four)
• Self-goals on the defense.

Shots early were as lopsided as the score: 9 to 4 in the first, 13 to 6 in the second, and finally, 6 to 10 in favor of the Spiders in the third, for a total of 28 for the Leafs, 20 for the Spiders.

Playoff watch puts the Spiders on life support. Though still not mathematically eliminated, with three games remaining in the regular season, and three of the five teams vying four the remaining two of the playoff berths owning tiebreakers ahead of the Spiders, it’ll be a very slim path for the Spiders to actually still be playing hockey instead of golf in April.

Spiders’ advice: book your tee times as long as they have a refundable deposit policy.

Remaining schedules of C3 East teams in playoff contention, besides the already clinched Fighting Loons and LED Nord:

Maroons (3rd place, 21 pts.):

• LED Nord
• Hooligans Green
• Blade Runners

Blade Runners (4th place; 18 pts.):

• Wolf-Rayets
• Nighthawks Gold
• Maroons

Leafs (5th place; 17 pts.):

• Minnesota Warriors
• LED Nord
• Hooligans Green

Wolf-Rayets (6th place; 16 pts.):

• Blade Runners
• Spiders
• Nighthawks Gold

Spiders (7th place; 16 pts.):

• Fighting Loons
• Wolf-Rayets
• Minnesota Warriors

Nighthawks Gold (8th place; 14 pts.):

• Hooligans Green
• Blade Runners
• Wolf-Rayets

The Spiders can hope for all those games between contending teams to end in ties, while the Spiders win out. Or for the league to pull its occasional year-end parity card and move the Fighting Loons up a level, thus opening one additional spot for a C3 East team. The last time the league did this, at least with C3, was moving the D1 Anchors up to the C3 playoff pool in the 2015–16 playoffs. The Anchors had gone 18–1–1–0 in the regular season for 37 points.

So, next up, in what will still be a must-win game, the Spiders will try to do what no team in the 2017–18 season has been able to do: beat the still-undefeated-in-regulation first-place Fighting Loons (16–0–0–1; 33 pts.).

The Fighting Loons have the best record in the entire AHA. The only other teams with zero regulation losses … The D1 East Fighting Loons (11–0–4–0; 26 pts.). (And in what must be the yin-yang of AHA hockey, the D1 West Fighting Loons are one of only two teams with zero wins (0–14–0–1; 1pt.)).

The next-best C3 record ... the C3 East LED Nord (14-3-0-0; 28 pts). The C3 North and West first-place teams have 27 points.

While the Leafs took the C3 Fighting Loons to overtime last week (with apparently just eight skaters), the Loons have come out ahead on every game except a pre-holidays overtime loss to the Wolf-Rayets 4–3. Since then, starting with their 6–5 defeat of the Spiders on the day after Christmas, they’ve put up nine consecutive W’s.

Lifetime against the various versions of the Loons Dynasty, the Spiders are 3–4 dating back to the 2013–14 season.

Puck drop next Saturday, back at Richfield, at 7:45 p.m.