Phantoms at Hershey 11-15-08: Third Period

Peltier has started off the third period calling the PHANTOMS repeatedly for penalties. We just finished killing off a penalty, and now we're back on the PK once again. Our play so far has been solid, but we can't keep this up for the entire period so we're going to have to stay out of the sin bin.

Oh, GOOD GRIEF. No sooner do I mention this than with 14:14 remaining, we have a guy already in the box for a minute and we get another penalty. We're about to have a 5-on-3 PK for sixty seconds. The Bears called a timeout during the stoppage of play.
Aubin is in position and solid but he's making me nervous that he keeps gong into a butterfly before anyone's in position to shoot.

See, and this is why seeing the goalie go down prematurely makes me nervous. He's just plain down in a butterfly, not moving and not able to see the puck; one of our D (can't see who because we're at the far end of the ice) is standing and apparently also screening Aubin because he never moved when the shot finally came. A Bear pinged one in off the far post. At least it was during a 5-on-4 so we're at even strength again. These are the technical issues that we had going on during that early-season losng streak. When he stopped doing some of these things, he started winning. The score is 3-3.

Or at least it WAS 3-3 for a couple of minutes. The Bears took the lead with 11:02 to go, on a long east-west pass to a wde-open attacker. Now it's 4-3 bad guys, and the Bears also lead on the shot clock 33-23. Blast it -- this is the kind of period the Bears played when they erased a three-goal deficit at the Spectrum a couple Sundays ago. Now we're shorthanded AGAIN.

And with 19 seconds remaining in the PP, a Bear apparently gets a hat trick because suddenly it's raining headgear. Must be Osala, because I know he's already got two on the night. Crud -- 5-3 Bears with 8:57 left. If there weren't a delay right now due to the officials clearing hats off the ice, I'd say that we should be calling a timeout right now. But we're not, and apparently Paddock isn't using the moment to rally the troops, eihter, because our five guys were at the center ice faceoff circle the entire time the ice was being cleared.

Now it's the Bears going shorthanded, and NOW it appears that we're having a conference at the bench. But we're taking advantage of a promotional timeout, rather than calling a timeout. Matsumoto, Laliberte, Maroon, Ratchuk, and Curry are out. Hershey's clearing the puck out pretty effectively, however. Now we have Giroux, Kalinski, and Kane on with DeSantis and Syvret. We are having a terrible time even getting set up, never mind creating chances. We actually still have 23 shots on goal, the same as we had five minutes ago... Meanwhile, the Bears got set up in OUR end while shorthanded, stayed there when they got their man back, and eventually scored to make it 6-3. Geesh, I'm growing to despise this "B-E-A-R-S Bears Bears Bears WOOO" chant that they do after every goal.

Oh, and I want to swat either our front office for trading Downie, or Tampa Bay for insisting on taking him. @#$#@$...

Sheesh, this PK is gong to give me a fargin' coronary, too. One of our D clearly intended to tuck a loose puck under Aubin's pad, but it looked for all the world like there was about to be a miscommunication on that point. Fortunately, we did NOT have an own-goal go in at that time.

However, on the next shift, there was a scrum at our left post involving all the skaters. Somehow that translated to a puck in the net, and it's now 7-3 Hershey.

I'm thinking that the odds do not favor a comeback with under three minutes remaining in the third period... I mean, I don't want to be a pessimist or anything, but a goal every thirty seconds from now until the final whistle would be really asking a lot.

Oh, whoopee, we go on the PP with 1:07 left in the period. Yeah, that's going to do a lot. </sarcasm> But we'll see. Is Matsy on the ice? Yes, along with Maroon and Laliberte. Let's see if he can get something going; he's got a pair of goals of his own tonight. The Bears are clogging the ice for all theiy're worth, though, so we're just plain not getting set up. Nope, no dice. Game over.

The Bears outshot us 41 to 25. Gotta get the bus, so I missed the stars of the game. I'll post that later.