Spiders fall flat, fall to Nighthawks 5–2 in McCormick’s return

Bill McCormick made his return to face the same team as his last game: Nighthawks Gold

And it started out very similar to that game, with the Nighthawks scoring early, then often, thanks to a flat Spider defense. While the Nighthawks put up a first-period natural hat trick last November (by Nighthawks’ leading scorer Josh Melstrom), the Spiders at least held off giving up the hat trick until the third period, and it was anything but natural.

At just 21 seconds in, the Spiders dug their first hole in the Richfield ice. Two minutes later, it was 2-zip. And thus began the traditional Spider march to the penalty box, with three straight sits for the Spiders, including a successfully killed 5-on-3. Despite the questionable nature of some of the calls, this had the Nighthawks literally asking if they had pissed off the Spiders. Despite being reassured otherwise, certain Nighthawks players took it upon themselves to police the game, encouraged by the refs who were turning a blind eye to everything behind (and occasionally in front of) the play.

The Spiders showed a bit of offensive life early in the second, with a goal by Kuhnly (from Vandenberghe and Farner), cutting the Nighthawks’ lead in half. But that was soon negated by another Nighthawks marker. And then another, to put the Spiders down 4–1, as the fireworks portion of the evening’s presentation began.

After a particularly egregious charging of the goalie, both captains pleaded with the refs to err on the side of safety, considering tempers were now getting well out of hand. Of course, it was one of those captains who was next to go the box for getting jawed at by Nighthawks’ leading scorer Josh Melstrom, following the Spiders’ second goal of the night (Grotbeck from Vandenberghe). Despite no call on the play, Melstrom’s response wasn’t as clean, and after sharing Valentine’s recipes, both ended up with unsportsmanlike double minors. The Spiders deemed this a good trade, getting a minus-2 defenseman off the ice in exchange for the Nighthawks’ leading scorer. And thanks to the extended Spider zone time without a whistle, they’d be off for a total of 7 minutes and 12 seconds, enough to be able to help more than once with manning the penalty box gate.

Through all that, the Spiders were reciprocated with their own 5-on-3, the full two-minute variety, as the refs decided they’d heard enough F-bombs out of #34, since he couldn’t get the refs’ attention with his stick.

Despite plenty of zone time, the Spiders could barely get a shot through, and wasted the opportunity. But it did at least wake the Spiders up, and the jump had the Spiders seriously outskating the shorter-benched Nighthawks. The second wind drew some more penalties, and a few more chances, but nothing made it on net, let alone in the net. And the dagger came at 1:48 of the third, with #8 getting the hat trick. All zero of the Richfield fans dutifully tossed their toques.

The Spiders pulled McCormick after that, and were even given yet another power play, but never got close enough to score.

The officiating crew offered one more abdication of their duties, by choosing to not enforce USA Hockey Rule 629(b):

No penalized player may leave the penalty bench except on the expiration of his penalty or at the end of a period. A minor penalty shall be assessed to any player who leaves the penalty bench before his penalty has expired, unless it resulted from an error by the Penalty Timekeeper.

Final score: 5–2 Nighthawks.

The final shots show the peppering the Nighthawks put on, with a 36 (17, 11, 8) to 28 (6, 12, 10) shot advantage.

And with the roller-coaster penalty calls, it almost came up even, with the Spiders getting six for 12 PIM, and the Nighthawks getting seven calls, for 14 PIM.

Stick taps to the Nighthawks’ alternate captain, who offered his sincere apologies for the “hothead” behavior the Spiders had to endure.

The Spiders finish the three-game Richfield “homestand” going 1–2.

2017–18 C3 East Standings (Week 15)
Team GP W L T OTL P GF GA PIM
Fighting Loons 15 14 0 0 1 29 64 30 52
Les Etoiles du Nord 15 12 3 0 0 24 61 30 40
Maroons 15 9 5 1 0 19 50 39 68
Blade Runners 15 8 6 1 0 17 65 59 110
Spiders 15 6 7 1 1 14 50 49 88
Wolf-Rayets 15 6 7 2 0 14 44 41 66
Leafs 15 5 6 4 0 14 42 45 140
Nighthawks Gold 15 6 9 0 0 12 40 48 142
Hooligans Green 15 4 10 1 0 9 41 64 96
Minnesota Warriors 15 0 15 0 0 0 29 81 80

The loss puts the Spiders below .500 again (6–7–1–1)and into a three-way tie for April golf, as the Blade Runners extend their separation to one-and-a-half games for the fourth and final playoff spot. In third, the Maroons are two-and-a-half games ahead, and that’s who the Spiders will take on next.

The Spiders won the first game vs. the Maroons 4–1, the Maroons last loss until tonight against the still-undefeated-in-regulation Fighting Loons, going 6–1–1 since Dec. 17.

Puck drop is Monday, at Breck at 9:30 p.m.

Correction:

The Spiders’ Statistician Dept. issued the following statement: Last week’s Century Mark point stats neglected to recognize the first Century Mark points achiever. So to the new recipients, please share your trophy accordingly.

For details, see the box score and game summary.

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