Fransen shuts out Puck Hounds in toughest test of season

Jan. 30, 2011

Highlights:

First shutout:: Travis Fransen
First point of the season:: Travis Fransen
12th win of the season:: Travis Fransen

Team records set tonight:

Longest winning streak:: 12 games (and counting?)

Attendance:: At least 27! Thank you, fans!

Puck Hounds vs. Spiders

Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011,
6:45 p.m. – New Hope S

Game 12 (AHA game 625)

Puck Hounds final score:: 0
Spiders final score:: 2

Final – 1/30/2011
Team	1	2	3	F
Puck Hounds	0	0	0	0
Spiders	0	1	1	2

Facing a hungry second-place Puck Hounds team, the Spiders had their undefeated streak on the line in front of the almost-at-capacity Family Night in New Hope crowd. The Spiders bench was almost at capacity too, as the Spiders dressed 16 skaters.

The teams couldn’t have been more closely matched, as it was an up-and-back affair through the first, with stellar goaltending at either end of the ice.

In the second, the ice tilted back and forth, with each team mounting sustained offensive pressure, generating chance after chance, and each team having difficulty clearing the zone. On the Spider end, if it wasn’t Fransen shutting down the snappers, it was the backchecking squad in front of him also doing their duty, with Droullard, LaCosse and Pettengill registering blocked shots on sure goals.

Finally, almost seven minutes in, as the D was changing, the forwards kept pressing, and finally solved the netminder Guarneri. The Spiders capitalized on a broken Hound breakout, where fresh-on-the-ice Schroeder collected at the blueline, perfectly outleted to Schuster in the neutral zone, tic-tac-toed to Yard to Freed with speed, who drew the lone backchecker to the middle, flipped back to Yard, who found the twine through the near corner.

The D then spent the next minute arguing over who should get the plus. That distraction led to Hounds’ best chance of the night. The Hounds found their neutral zone camper through Wahlberg and LaCosse. In a perfectly executed backcheck, LaCosse played the “man” while Walhberg played the puck loose. But, with the Hounds’ trailer #44 Torinus in perfect position in the slot, he had a wide-open net and Hound bluescreen courtesy of LaCosse’s slide. Torinus snapped it home, and began his goal celebration, unbeknownst that the ref clearly saw the best save of the season by Fransen’s trapper, which he had somehow flung back into position from the far crease. The Hounds pleaded for a video review from Toronto, also unbeknownst that the entire episode was captured on the Schuster media team Flip!

In the third, the pace seemed to increase, with the Puck Hounds still just one shot away, and setting up the classic “D1 early breakout” play. And when it was Hounds leading scorer #26 J. Danielson, it often came very close to working. But Fransen’s could still see the donut staring at him on the scoreboard behind him, and played like he wanted to keep it that way. With 6:35 left on the clock, he took matters into his own hands — and stick — and having practiced shooting on net in the pre-game warmup, was all set to contribute to the offense, and made a “wicked pass” to Flannery, who closed the deal, netting Fransen his first point of the season, and the Spiders the dreaded two-goal lead. Luckily, during a stoppage, Fransen jetted to the bench to give a convincing post-goal pep talk, to “play like it’s tied,” rather than the usual third-period doldrums, which have more often than not led to opponent goals this season (see third-period scoring stats, showing 15 opponent goals in the third through 12 games, vs. 14 in the first and second periods combined). And that’s what the Spiders did, ignoring the stats and the scoreboard, instead turning away chance after chance by the pressing Hounds.

D1 West Standings *(Jan. 31)*
Team	GP	P
Spiders D1	12	24
Puck Hounds	12	17
Maroons D1	13	16
Royals D1	13	13
Chaos D1	12	11
Fighting Saints	12	8
Ice Gators	12	8
Gold Rush	12	4

With 2:14 left, it seemed the game would be in the Penalty Shot bag on a late drag-down in front of the net of LW Cison, who had been sprung for a breakaway, but the ref saw matters differently, and gave the Hounds’ Danielson a standard trip instead, with 2:14 on the clock. But the two and change was sufficient time to close out the game, and give Fransen the shutout, his first career AHA one at that!

Final: 2–0, and the lowest offensive output of the season. In all, a classic AHA goaltender’s duel that could’ve easily gone either way.

Shots were as close as the game as well, with the Spiders putting 26 on Guarneri (11, 7, 8), and the Hounds registering 24 (6, 7, 11), all duly stopped by Fransen.

With the win, the Spiders push the streak another two weeks, as they’ll be off for the Super Bowl bye, next facing the Maroons on a pre-Valentine’s Day rematch at St. Thomas, Sunday, Feb. 13. The Maroons sit just behind the Hounds in the standings, 7–4–1–1 and 16 points, beating the Royals tonight, in identical fashion to the Spiders’ win, 2–0. The previous Maroons matchup had the Spiders hanging on in OT.

The Puck Hounds will hold on to second place, at 8–4–1, and still 17 points.

For details, see the box score and game summary.