Spiders find PIM groove, lose 6–3 (or 6–4) to Fighting Walleye Blue

Nov. 9, 2023

Spiders find PIM groove, lose 6–3 (or 6–4) to Fighting Walleye Blue

The Spider squad of last season found its PIM groove (and parade path to the penalty box).

In a rare-for-the-AHA Thursday night game, the Spiders could finally have a fuller bench, to face the Fighting Walleye Blue (who had 16 skaters, just the same as the Loons had in game 1).

And again, while the Spiders started the scoring again as in game 1, this time with a shortie courtesy a Krough breakaway, they couldn’t stay out of the box like in game 1.

At least they were short sits. Nick Ungaro got flagged twice (once earned, once by a poor angle), earning four PIM, but only had 11 seconds of breather time total, as the Walleyes capitalized immediately off the faceoffs.

While the Spiders mounted pressure in the third, even supposedly scoring a clanger off the back of the net, the out-of-position ref never saw the puck go in, and Toronto video review was unavailable at Hopkins due to the late hour.

Calling timeout at 1:56, Tejeda himself only got a 16-second breather at the bench before a 190’ Walleye layup salted the game away.

Final score: 6–3 (or 6–4)

Lifetime against these Walleyes, which dates back to the 2020–21 playoffs (where they went on to win the C3 hardware), the Spiders are now 2–5*, including the asterisk game.

Next up, it’s back to Hopkins Sunday night, vs. the Boreal Hockey Club, a team the Spiders have never played before, as they have just moved up from D1, where last year they went 19–1 in the regular season, making it all the way to the D1 title game, where they lost 2–1 to the Bold North (the team they opened this season against, winning 3–2.

Puck drop Sunday at 8:50 p.m. at Hopkins.