Phantoms vs. Albany School Day Game, 11/19/08: Third Period

Clackson and Paiement are still in the box, serving the remainder of their double minors, at the start of the third period. The teams are playng 5 on 5. Not even a minute into the period, we score again. :) Claude Giroux puts in yet another tally, assisted by Ross and Maroon. At t least two of the above guys, and possibly all three, look like Star of the Game candidates. Scotty Munroe stands a chance of being selected if, errrr, the right sort of score is on the board at game's end. (During games, I refuse to say that word that begins with S and ends with ZERO.)

The fifth Phantoms goal signified the end of the contest for Mr. Peters. Daniel Manzato is taking over the thankless task of defending the Albany net.

D'Amour has just gone to the box for high-stickng so we are on the PK. We have Raduns, Kalinski, Syvret, and Guenin out. Giroux AGAIN takes the puck and heads into the River Rats' end with it. I seriously thought he was going to trigger a cascade of headgear on the play, but he lost the puck and Albany headed back down to our end with it. We've killed the penalty; the SOG stand at Phantoms 25, River Rats 18.

Clackson just rumbled with #32 of Albany. The River Rat threw a lot of punches, but so did Clackson and even though he gives up noticeable amount of size to his opponent (Gillies), Clackson managed to wrestle him to the ice at the end. Methinks that was Gillies' retribution for that monster hit Clackson had on the Rats' #11 earlier. Clackson is heading up the tunnel with our trainer, so he might have gotten a tad banged up. Actually, since both guys got five minutes and a ten-minute misconduct, and there's less than 15 minutes remaining in the third period, Clackson can afford to head up the tunnel as it's unlikely he'll be back in this contest. Gillies also picked up two minutes for roughing, so the Phantoms have gotten a powerplay out of the tilt.

Ratchuk has had a couple of nice keep-ins during this man advantage. We didn't quite manage to seal the deal with a goal, however.

With 12:15 remaining in the third period, the SOG are Phantoms 29, River Rats 18. LOL, make that 19, because as soon as wrote it, Abany put a puck on our net.

Here we go on the PP once again... Or at least, we WERE going on the PP until the ten-skater shoving match in front of the River Rats net. Now I see Ross gong into the sin bin along with a Rat. Now it's Dwyer (Albany) for hooking, and Ross two for unsportsmanlike conduct. Phooey.

With ten minutes remaining in the period, we're at 4 on 4 and I see the ref's arm up yet again. One of our guys just fell over the Rats goalie, resulting in at least two separate scrums. Some Rat just wrestled Matsumoto to the ice, and I can't even see who the other two guys are because the other players are in the way. When the dust cleared, Kalinski wound up in the box for goalie interference and we're going to be down 4-on-3 for the next 1:18.

Curry, Bartulis, and Giroux (no surprise) are our guys on the ice to start the PK. Munroe makes a save, Giroux picks up the rebound and skates it past our blueline before clearing it down the ice. Now it's Syvret, Guenin, and Raduns (another rookie forward). We are now at 5 on 4, and Raduns took the puck all the way down to the other end and got a shot on goal. So we're still making noise in this game even while shorthanded. Matsumoto, Ross, Syvret, and Guenin are out now.

Yet another fight has broken out. This time it was the Rat who got the takedown -- on Matsumoto again. WTH is this? Albany seems to have a penchant for going after our smaller players now that Clackson is out. That's just a bunch of nonsense. I'm sure they're frustrated, given the score and some of their recent game results, but STILL, going after the little guys is just cheap. The River Rat is Jenson, who along with Matsumoto got give minutes for fighting. Somehow, in the midst of that, Kalinski also picked up two for roughing. That's pretty bogus, to only give our guy the minor when everyone was shovng everyone else. Oh, well. We have Beaulieu, Raduns, Bartulis, and Curry on the PK. Next up: Ross, Giroux, Syvret, and Guenin. (Nice clear, Nate!!) And yet again, Giroux takes the puck all the way up ice. He doesn't cause a rainstorm of headgear, however.

D'Amour goes for cross-checking and we just barely finished the previous freaking PK. I would like to see us stay at even strength for a while, so the goalie, errr, has an opportunity to be considered as a Star of the Game.

Raduns takes the puck ALL the way own on a breakaway, and I thought we were about to see another SH goal. But Manzato made a nice stop and kept it out.

Now we will be at 4 on 4 for 1:11, as a River Rat was called for elbowing. Giroux, Beaulieu, Syvret, and Ratchuk are out. I like seeing Beau on the PK -- it's stil more evidence that he's back in the lineup for real, and not just so we can dress a minimum number of players like I think was the case last weekend with Hershey. On the PP now, it's Donati, Maroon, Bartulis, DeSantis, and...???. I couldn't see who our other guy was before we had a line change. Raduns, Laliberte, Maroon (still), DeSantis, and Bartulis. AAAH, HOLY COW what a scramble in front of the Phantoms net. I don't know how the puck stayed out, except that we had some good stuff from Muny; plus, we had some good fortune that the puck eventually got out behind everyone who was battling for it. Raduns was the first on the scene to take it out of harm's way.

With a minute remaining, the shot totals have nearly evened out: the Phantoms have 33, and the River Rats have 31. We are clogging the ice for all we're worth -- we don't want Albany to have an opportunity to spoil Scotty's you-know-what.

And we get it done! Final score, 5-0, so Scotty does, in fact, get his shutout. :) Stars of the game: #3 Jeff Szwez, #2 Claude Giroux, and #1 Scott Munroe with the 31 saves.