Spiders set team record ... for penalties

Oct. 27, 2007

It was an ugly one at St. Louis Park tonight, with the Spiders getting 40 minutes in penalties, and coming out on the short end of the fishing pole against the Fighting Piranhas, losing 12–9.

The much-heralded debut of the Spiders at D1 was met with defeat, as the Spiders mounted numerous comebacks, only to be pushed back by the Piranhas. Beginning-of-season fatigue, the Piranhas’ king of deflections camped in front of the Spiders’ net (for three goals), a few inconvenient penalties, or any other factor you’d like to insert here: ___________, it was not a good night for the Spiders.

The good news was the Spiders’ offense, which kept the team in the game all the way to the latter half of the third.

Scoring highlights:

• First period
  • Brian Armagost, on the Power Play, unassisted
  • Ted Samsel
• Second period
  • Marc Berris, with a highlight-reel goal, threading the needle from the high slot to beat the goalie just inside the pipe. Assisted by Ryan Herman and new Spider John McGrane.
  • Fresh Legs Martini, unassisted
  • New Spider Mike Johnson, on a beautiful breakaway, beating the challenging goalie to score his first AHA goal — shorthanded!
• Third period
  • Brian Armagost (again), on a sniper from the left point, assisted by Captain Bob Jensen.
  • Mike Johnson (again), with assist from Ryan Herman and Mike Montgomery.
  • Ted Samsel (again — be sure to show your kids this!), with assist from Mr. Third Period, new Spider Aaron Bedessem.
  • And finally, Ryan Herman, with assist (again) from Aaron Bedessem.

New Spiders goalie Mike Derer, faced a whopping 38 shots on goal, turning away 26, usually through #88 of the Piranhas, who made himself at home in the crease quite often. The Spiders had 23 shots on goal.

Penalties? You don’t want to know.