Spiders survive Maroons, win 4–1

Feb. 19, 2018

Dangerous attack, match penalty clouds otherwise good game and Spider victory.

Coming into this game, the Maroons had cleaned up on C3 East since the last Spider match. With six consecutive victories, they went 6–1–1, losing only to the juggernaut and still-undefeated-in-regulation Fighting Loons last week. In the same stretch, the Spiders went 3–5, and were in desperate need of a W to maintain any post-season hopes.

The Washington’s Birthday holiday, the flu season and the winter weather put the Spiders down to just three defensemen and two centers joining the wings to start the game. And each team traded fluky goals in the opening minute, with Grotbeck from Pappone just 34 seconds in, followed by a pileup in front of McCormick 12 seconds later.

From there, some actual solid, competitive C3-level hockey took hold, with each team getting chances. The Spiders broke the logjam with a minute to go in the second, with Pappone, fresh back from Florida, scoring from his version of Schuster’s Office™, assists to Andres and Droullard.

In the third, the Spiders had the lead and set about to kill off the 17 minutes. Farner drew a penalty in the corner after a takedown by #10 (M. Scholl), but the power play just killed off the two minutes, intentionally or otherwise. Then, Berman added to the Spider lead six and a half minutes in, with his patented sneaky snapshot, assists to Droullard and McCormick. Followed by a point blast and rebound from Andres that was tapped in by Schuster in the right spot. Spiders up 4–1. With five and half minutes to go, RagDoll drew his inevitable knockdown, by #24 (B. Scholl), but again the Spider power play was ineffective.

With 1:28 remaining, the fireworks portion of the evening’s program was on display for all of the Breck crowd (the maintenance guy) and, more importantly, the refs, to see. After a tussle by Brad Sutton and #24 again (B. Scholl), the Maroons’ #17 (T. Scholl) took it upon himself to mete out the consequences, and well after the whistle, charged in from the blueline, and violently cross-checked a defenseless Sutton directly in the neck/larynx.

In an AHA (as in ... adult recreational) game.

Thankfully, after a very scary few moments as Doc Rob attended, Brad recovered and was able to get off the ice under his own volition. The refs then conferenced trying to sort out what they undoubtedly couldn’t believe they just saw. In the meantime, #17 insisted he had to apologize, and proceeded past the refs and to the Spider bench. Yet another unwise decision on his part, but that may likely be the last opportunity he would have to skate on AHA ice, once the disciplinary committee considers his AHA future.

All told, #17 earned himself a 5-minute major for cross-checking, match penalty for intent to injure, and a game misconduct for refusing to cooperate or leave the ice.

For the second week in a row, more USAH rules grace the pages of ahaspiders.com:

Rule 602: Attempt to Injure/Deliberate Injury of Opponents

A match penalty shall be assessed to any player or team official who deliberately injures or attempts to injure any opposing player or team official. In all cases when a match penalty is assessed, a game report shall be filed with the proper authorities for further disciplinary action.

Rule 609: Cross-Checking

(Note) Cross-Checking is the action of using the shaft of the stick between the two hands to forcefully check an opponent with no portion of the stick on the ice.

• A minor or a major penalty shall be assessed for crosschecking an opponent.
• A major plus a game misconduct penalty shall be assessed to any player who injures an opponent as a result of crosschecking.

With just 1:28 left, a three-goal margin, and tempers way on edge, the Spiders asked if it was acceptable just to end the game rather than risk further damage.

And with that, the Spiders’ return to .500 was in the books. Final score: 4–1.

Shots were as lopsided as the PIM, with McCormick making key saves to keep the game in control. The Spiders shot 42 (11, 9, 22), and Maroons 21 (11, 7, 3).

Those 22 shots per period are not a record, however. That honor is at 24, set back in February 2006 vs. the Nighthawks, and tied last season vs. the Scarlet Rebellion.

The win returns the Spiders to .500, 7–7–1–1, and 16 points, good enough for a tie for fifth with the Wolf-Rayets, and a point out of playoff contention, held by the Blade Runners.

And lifetime vs. the Maroons, the Spiders improve the series to 5–7 dating back to 2005–06.

With four games left in the regular season, the Spiders will need some help, by not only helping themselves to wins, but to the middle-of-the-pack teams suddenly forgetting their winning ways and learning AHA math. A game and a half separates spots 4 through 8. And the Spiders will lose critical head-to-head tiebreakers against a few of those teams:

Next up, the Spiders take on the Leafs this Sunday back at Richfield. The Spiders dropped the previous game vs. the Leafs 3–1.

Puck drop at 7:45.