Loons finish Spiders

March 19, 2023

The last game of the season was a stat-padder for the Loons.

The Spiders, what was left of the roster after spring travel, spring illnesses, and spring injuries, hit the ice for one last time Sunday afternoon at EPCC. Backing the Spiders, the only one of 16 sub goalies to be available (saving a trip due to playing a game on the same ice sheet afterwards), was Alicia Morrison. She definitely got her warmup in for the second game, eventually facing a 39-shot barrage by the relentless Loons.

While the Spiders erased the looming donut late in the second (on a beautiful play started by Kato at the point, to Vandenberghe to Berman) the Loons answered with three quick tallies to close out the first 34 minutes with a 7–1 advantage.

It was a no-brainer to go run-time clock in the third. Though as the Spiders actually made it interesting, adding three more (Berman from M. Johnson and Ronneberg … eventually; T. Johnson from Vandenberghe, and Ungaro from T. & M. Johnson … the first such Johnson Bros. combined scoring play of the season!), the rookie scorekeeper couldn’t figure out how to disable the runtime clock. The Loons of course widened the lead in the meat minutes, going up 8–4. And even as the clock was winding down, the Loons were begging ref Pete to drop the puck so they could run some more cherry-picking plays and add to their season stats.

With yet another stellar glove save by Alicia at 9 seconds on the clock, the time mercifully expired on the game. Final score: 8–4.

And with yet another loss, the Spiders fall to 9–11 on the season, capping a 1–7 run since the mid-season winning streak. The Spiders and Loons finish in a tie for 7th place, though the Spiders get the tiebreaker (not due to PIM).

In the later game, Alicia got slightly less work backstopping the Saints, and earned herself a 3–2 victory over the Blade Runners, who finish last, despite beating the Spiders last week.

The Loons also take the season series 2–1. And lifetime against the various versions of the Loons Dynasty™, it’s an even 8–8–1 dating back to the 2013–14 season.

The Spiders finish the season with 167 PIM (thanks to the lone infraction of the game assessed to the captain, who needed a two-minute breather after his second shift). That won’t be anywhere enough to take the Anti-Lady Byng cup, currently sitting tied for 5th, after strong showings elsewhere in the Federal League (of course the top tier is own by the Chiefs). Nor will it edge even the Spiders’ all-time PIM record, which was 182 in the 2009–10 regular season (plus 32 more in the playoffs, for a total of 214 PIM).

Next up, golf (then summer hockey), as the Spiders will miss the playoffs for the first time in three seasons (though the short-benched squad barely made a peep last spring). And for those four teams that will advance, a chance to try to shake off the rust that will accumulate for the next month, and try to advance past the seemingly unstoppable 16–2–2 Saints.