Spiders Fall Back instead of Springing Forward

March 7, 2026

The Spiders coughed up a third-period lead, going down in defeat in overtime, in a pre-DST faceoff against the Sharks with frickin lasers. (Not that the Spiders ever do well on DST weekend...)

Well, it was the last chance for the Spiders (1–15) to dig themselves out of the C3 Cellar, facing the nearly-last-place Sharks with frickin lasers (2–14). The other cellar dweller, the Saints (2–14) came back to beat the Fighting Walleye in OT at VMCC on the (nice) sheet before the Spiders’ tilt. All the while the MSHSL game at the Slot Machine was already in 2OT (with Moorhead coming back to beat Minnetonka).

That didn’t portend well for the desperate Spiders, who got out to a lead early in the first, on a seeing-eye Kato shot against the lasers’ sub goalie.

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The frickin lasers tied it up late in the third, and edged ahead early in the second, only to be answered by the Spiders, first by Schroeder, then by a breakaway Long on a shortie. Spiders 3–2.

But on the second attempt at a D-zone faceoff, the puck somehow came right off the dot and into the net. Tie game. Again. The blue line got another, with Benson capping the middle frame, Spiders up 4–3.

Ungaro made a highlight reel effort to give the Spiders the most dangerous lead in hockey early in the third. That would last six minutes, and the sharks relentless forecheck had the Spiders on their heels, eventually cashing in at 9:20, and again at 5:17, and the Spiders seeing their W turn to an L.

Following a stoppage at the five-minute mark, no one noticed the clock still running until ref Brent finally got it set at 4:20. The Spiders should’ve opted for runtime.

Though Ungaro got a slot shot past the goalie to retake the lead with 3:11 to go, the ice was severely tilted the other way, after the sharks called timeout to pull their goalie. First DeBleeckere got called for a hook with 80 seconds to go, then Long got called for elbowing 8 seconds later, gift-wrapping the lasers a 6-on-3 with 72 ticks in regulation. And sure enough, after two Spider killers were taken down in front of the net, at least one of four open forwards was able to bury it in the Spider net, with 48 seconds to go.

So much for the Spider W.

On to runtime OT. The Spiders still had to kill off the remaining minor, so the frickins had ample opportunity to pepper the Spider net, notching 5 shots on goal, with the fifth finding the twine.

Final score: 7–6 Sharks, frickins and lasers.

During their celly, shark 17 of course couldn’t help himself, and was sent packing by ref Brent.

The OT loss gives the Spiders one loser point, but still the sole lock on the C3 cellar, as the Sharks climb over the Saints (by tiebreakers), and puts the Spiders a game and a half underwater, with three games to go on the season.

Next up, a Thursday night tilt at Parade, vs. the third-place Kan Jammers (13–3–1–0), as the division matchups turn over. The Spiders lost to the Kan Jammers in the first game of the season 7–2.

Puck drop at 7 p.m. Thursday at Parade.