Spiders fall 6–3 to Royals

Dec. 9, 2018

Despite solid first period after losing Rich Elling to an “upper-body injury” one minute in, Spiders fall flat in third.

It took only 51 seconds for Sunday’s game against the Royals to turn south, when a friendly collision in the offensive zone sent Rich Elling to the ice and then to the ER. After being helped from the ice, Rich was taken to the hospital, where of course, he texted asking about the score. Had he remembered it was the Spiders, no need to ask.

The Spiders extend their gratitude to the Royals fans who helped attend to Rich off ice, who went above and beyond to assist.

On to the game…

No, this didn’t help.

Bill McCormick’s simple request in the dressing room was for everyone to just score one goal. Easy enough. Only one person in that room listened, and John Andres got the Spiders on the board, with a point shot that got deflected in, tying up the game following the Royals’ #19 A. Reed getting his number called for the first (of many).

With a couple minutes to go in the first, Grotbeck from Sutton gave the Spiders the lead. That lead lasted a minute, with the Royals’ #19 A. Reed getting his number called … again.

The track meet continued into the second, with the Royals’ #19 A. Reed getting hats onto the ice surface from the big Royals-friendly afternoon crowd at Richfield. Thirty seconds later, another Andres point shot found its way through, with Sommerness scoring, first assist by Pappone.

With the early 4:15 start, it was nap time right around the middle of the second period, and it clearly showed as the Royals began controlling play in all zones. No one was surprised to see the Royals’ #19 A. Reed make his hat trick Texas-sized, the third Texas Hat Trick the Spiders have allowed in three consecutive games. However, while he didn’t miss the net, the Royals’ #19 A. Reed narrowly missed scoring the fourth shorthanded goal against the Spiders in two games, potting it just three seconds after his team was back to full strength.

Down by one in the third, the Spiders saw yet another game slip away, giving up yet another to the Royals’ #19 A. Reed, who upped the ante for next week’s opponent with a Lemieux-sized Hat Trick. The Royals’ #19 A. Reed was rudely denied the six-gallon hatty by his teammate, who disrupted the continuity of the goal column halfway through the period to cap the Royals’ scoring for the afternoon.

While the Spiders media department hasn’t tracked individual opponent stats, this appears to be just the second time ever the Spiders have allowed five goals to an opponent player in the team’s 15-year history, coming way back in the team’s first winter season, vs. the Bruins on March 11, 2006, where #8 D. Billings put up five against the then D2 Spiders in their 11–5 victory.

Final score: 6–3

The Spiders fortunately can’t fall any further in C3 East, though they can dig themselves a bigger hole, now 0–5–1 on the season and three points behind the Wildcats and Ak Bars. It’s a similar hole in the franchise series with the Royals, dropping to 6–12–2 going back to 2005–06.

The Royals improve to 4–2 and jump into the top-4 playoff picture.

Next up for the Spiders, another longtime opponent dating back to 2005–06 as well. The Maroons are 3–0–2–1 on the season, and incidentally are the last current C3 team the Spiders beat. (The Spiders beat the Minnesota Warriors in the last game of the season, but that team moved down to D1 for this season.) The Spiders held off the Maroons 4–1 last season on Feb. 19, 2018, a game that had its share of fireworks, as Spider fans, and the league disciplinary board, will recall.

Lifetime the series is 5–7.

And the Maroons tied the Arctic Wolves 5–5 in the game after the Spiders at Richfield Sunday.

Puck drop is at New Hope on Sunday, Dec. 16, at 7:30 p.m.