Spiders catch limit in walleye season

March 9, 2022

The Spiders got off the four-game schneid in 3–2 upset of Fighting Walleye.

The Spiders faced the third-place Fighting Walleye for the first time this season, as the previous matchup resulted in a Spider forfeit. The Spiders were sitting a half-game behind the Fighting Loons, in the fifth and final playoff berth in C3 West coming into the game, thanks to the four-game skid in February.

With the incredible shrinking Spider roster down (or up!) to 11 skaters available for Wednesday night’s game at Richfield, the scoring opened midway through the first on a power play drawn as usual by the Rag Doll (dutifully spotted by ref Brent), Krough from Grotbeck and the birthday boy Cory Vandenberghe, who is now officially elderly enough to be on the Spiders.

The other ref, Michael Bernard, who started the game by lecturing both teams’ captains to keep their sticks on the ice, was the official grand marshal of the Spider Parade to the Penalty Box, which eventually led to the Walleyes tying it up with 40 seconds to go in the first. The Walleye’s leading scorer #27 T. Weidenbach added another to give them the 2–1 lead.

But in the third, Bernard was somehow only seeing the Walleye’s stickwork, albeit some were very obvious, and gave the Spiders a rare 5-on-3. And the Spiders wasted little time (well, most of the time) cashing in after winning a few faceoffs, finally got the puck around the horn, with Andres at the left point, uncredited for the second game a row for his offensive prowess, from Litton and Krough. Back at 5-on-4, a goalmouth scrum was converted by Johnson (supposedly), from Grotbeck and O’Connor, that would stand as the gamewinner.

The Walleye called timeout with just over a minute to go, and pulled their goalie, but Weidenbach generously cross-checked Harry Long behind the Spider net, forcing the Walleye end of the pond faceoff and killing off any extra-attacker momentum they may have had. Kellogg stood on her head, with the Spiders getting outshot 34 to 23, stealing the game from the Walleye, and getting the Spiders’ first victory since the 3–2 OT win over the Mallards on Feb. 3.

Final score: Spiders 3, Walleye 2.

Lifetime against the Fighting Walleye, which dates back nearly one year, the Spiders are now 1–2*, with the first matchup in the playoffs last March, where they went on to win the C3 hardware, and the asterisk game the forfeit in January.

Playoff Watch

With the win, the Spiders reclaim fourth place, where they’ve sat for weeks despite the swoon, and make April hockey more of a likelihood, with a 10–7–1 record and two games to go.

In the crowded middle of C3 West, the Spiders, Fighting Loons and Troopers are all vying for the last two spots, while the Mallards are holding on by a mere thread, thanks to tiebreakers that could give them an edge over the Loons and Troopers if their AHA Math calculates (i.e., win out/opponents lose out).

DST Sunday evening will hold the formula for a lot of that AHA math, as the Troopers and Loons face each other this weekend at New Hope N, to see if the Troopers can hold back the Loons from overtaking the Spiders. And the Mallards face the Nordeasters right after that game.

Whereas on at New Hope S, the Spiders next face the 3–14 Black Ice, puck drops 8:45 p.m.

The Spiders will now officially be without Jon Pappone for the remainder of the season, who has been out on IR since Dec. 5, as he is getting scheduled for surgery for the “upper-body” injury suffered in November. His last game was Nov. 28, where he scored the gamewinner, and had been week-to-week and expecting to return at some point. Jon is unfortunately in good company on the incredibly deep Spider Scratchlist. The Spiders wish him a speedy recovery and return to health and the ice next season.