Spiders dig out of hole in ice just in time

Feb. 3, 2022

The short-benched Spiders spent 47 minutes chasing their tails (and the Mallards) late Thursday night at Parade. The Starlight figure skating club, who had the ice before the game, may have put in a better showing against the Minnesota Mallards.

Starlighters backchecking.

The Mallards controlled the entire ice for the first two periods, and well into the third. While the Spiders outshot the Mallards in the first, the only scoring came from the Mallards. And they did it again halfway through the third on the power play.

With under five minutes to go, and down 2-zip, Schroeder and Berman had exchanged places on the depth chart, with Schroeder moving up to take the wing, and Berman on the blueline. Reluctantly heading out for his next shift, Berman threaded a slap-pass right to Schroeder, who had already been identified by the Mallards’ sub goalie at the back door, but Schroeder ignored the goalie and sent the puck home to cut the lead.

And 32 seconds later, Schroeder did it again, waiting out the goalie, much to his chagrin, and tying it up with 3:28 to go in regulation. Now the Spiders were awake.

As regulation expired, the gassed Spiders sheepishly requested a timeout. Nothing doing, said ref Fleischhacker, “use it or lose it” in regulation.

Andres getting ready for the GWOTG.

So in overtime, rather than continuing the tape-to-tape turnovers that had plagued the Spiders all night, they instead controlled play, with breakouts and breakaway chances on the Mallards’ goalie, but nothing doing.

It took until a puck squirted up to the left point, and blueliner Andres banged a seeing-eye slapshot through what seemed be every skater on the ice’s legs, and still found its way under the unknowing goaltender. Spiders win! But left a whole 92 seconds on the OT clock, a raw deal for those who wanted to maximize their TOI.

“I was trying to capture the spirit of the thing,” said Dickie Dunn.

With the OT win, the Mallards gain a point in the race to catch the playoff cutoff, where the Spiders have gained an edge over the Royals but they have a game in hand.

The Spiders sweep the Mallards in the season series 2–0, with the previous 4–1 win in late November.

Next up, the Spiders have a quick turnaround, and reprise at Parade, with hopefully a less full parking lot, on Tuesday night vs. the Wildcats. That team sits second to last in C3 West, at 3–10, though not quite eliminated from post-season contention thanks to AHA math. But officially, the Black Ice are now ready for golf season, as they can no longer catch the cutoff thanks to tiebreakers.

The previous game vs. the Wildcats (barely) went the Spiders’ way 4–2.

Puck drop at 9:15 Tuesday night at Parade North. Get your tickets (and your reserved parking spot) early.