Spiders borrow Wild playbook, steal a tie from Royals

Jan. 29, 2022

The Spiders were utterly dominated for two periods, biding their time to wear out the relentless Royals to force OT.

The Spiders got slotted in a rare Saturday afternoon game, and took the “middle of our naptime” quip a little too literally. The Royals, who slaughtered the Spiders 6–1 in the previous matchup in November, looked like they would make an encore performance right from the drop of the puck. After the very first shift, spent entirely in the Spider zone, head referee Brent Hanson was offering runtime to the Spider captain out of mercy. The Spiders spent the first 34 minutes giftwrapping the puck for the Royals. Spider-squisher #12 S. Angell cashed in on the game’s first power play by squeaking the puck though Spider sub goalie Robert Shea, who was able to get himself amply warmed up for the next game on the SLP E ice.

While the Spiders did score midway through the first, with Todd Krough lobbing a changeup from the boards that somehow beat the Royals’ Ennenga, momentum never shifted. Despite a power play late in the first, a cleared puck from the Royal goal line grew eyes on its 180’ course, and snuck under Shea’s stick.

After one, shots were 21–6 for the Royals, and 34–12 after two.

After a stern chalk talk at intermission, the Spiders came out with a little more composure in the third, eventually generating some offense, including one off a post that would’ve tied the game midway through. With some momentum and an offensive zone faceoff, the Spiders called timeout with 1:40 to go. And it took all of 30 seconds for Berman to smash the puck home and send the lone Spider fan in attendance to his feet — tie game!

The stunned Royals called their timeout before the faceoff to regroup. And despite spending the remaining — and excruciating — 70 seconds in the defensive zone, the Spiders dutifully tied up the puck in the corner to retain the stolen point. After three, the Spiders had finally somewhat bounced back in shots, at 48–30. And in the OT, would add 7 more with the Royals never gaining any traction. And although the Spiders had some chances in the extra frame, the Royals followed suit and ate up the final 30 seconds of runtime clock by slow-walking the faceoff.

Final score: 2–2

The much-needed point keeps the Spiders in the C3 West playoff race, still tied with the Royals (though they’ll retain the tiebreaker ).

The franchise series, which dates back to 2005–06, now stands at 7–14–3 in favor of the Royals

And the afternoon game ledger notches its first-ever tie! Better than yet another L…

Next up, the Spiders face the Minnesota Mallards again. The previous game was a 4–1 Spider win. The schedule now switches from weekends to weekdays, with five of the next six games happening during the week, including two in a row at Parade. The Mallards sit in a tie for fifth, at 6–6.

Puck drop is 9 p.m. Thursday night at Parade S.