Phantoms at Hershey Bears, 4-11-09; Final Regular Season Game

Scratches Lehtivuori, Kukkonen, Guenin, DeSantis, Gratton, Ross, Kane.

Starting lineup Aubin, Laliberte, Matsumoto, Maroon, Syvret, Sbisa.

What did Bears fans all holler when the anthem singer reached "...Land of the free"?

Next up Kempe Sirianni JVR with Ratchuk and Curry.

Then Klotz, Raduns, Clackson, Ratchuk, and Curry (the only regular D pair we have today).

Phooey, we get a penalty about five minutes into the game. Sirianni goes. Raduns with Kalinski were out with Bartulis and I couldn't see who else . Now it's Laliberte/Matsumoto with Sbisa and Syvret.

Oh, for crying sakes. No sooner do we get out, then back we go back to the sin bin. Sloane takes two for interference. Bears lead in SOG 7-0.

OMG Kalinski and Raduns on a SH 2 on 1... Neuvirth makes the stop but in the meantime, we are about to go to 4 on 4 for the next 51 seconds.

JVR and Sirianni are out with Ratchuk and Curry.

Or not – we can also go on a 4-onp3 PP for 31 seconds, which will graduate to a 5 on e advantage AAH a Bear's stick broke and we couldn't take advantage. The Bears are getting to loose pucks first. Matsumoto's line are out with Sbisa and Syvret. OH shoot, Neuvirth made a circus save to keep the second shot out... Maroon shot point blank and the rebound went to Laliberte, who had a wide open cage to fire at until Neuvirth did a Jack-in-the-box impersonation and sprang up between the puck and the twine.

The PP is over. SOG are now Bears 10, Phantoms 6. And another Hershey PP ensues. This time it's Curry, but the PA sounds garbled from this angle so who knows what the penalty was for?

BLAST. A shot from the point hits the crossbar and goes in with 15 seconds left in the PK.

Fight: Klotz vs. Brennan. Brennan pinned Klotz's arms but they did both manage to get in several shots.=0 AI would give them a draw and tip my cap to Garrett for fighting again for the first time in a while.

JVR with the breakaway, but Neuvirth makes the save.

ANOTHER breakaway, couldn't see if it was JVR (22) or Kempe (23) but again, Neuvirth was equal to the challenge.

Raduns Clackson Beaulieu are out.

Bellamy Kalinski JVR..

At the end of the first period, the Bears lead 1-0, and SOG are Bears 14, Phantoms 8.

I had to put the computer aside briefly to let the lady with a mop clean up a nearby soda issue. During that time, here's a recap of the salient points of the period.

The Bears managed to pot another goal early on. Not long afterward, the Phantoms got a full two-minute two-man advantage when two Bears were called for hooking.

Luca Sbisa cashed in 55 seconds into the PP, with assists from Syvret and Matsumoto. It was his first pro goal, as far as we can tell. I thought he had scored for the Flyers, but I'm told otherwise.

I am-not liking the amount of time that we are spending in our end, overall during this period.

However, having said that, we have spent enough time in the Bears' end that e have nearly caught up in shots on goal. With 6:41 left in the period, the Bears have 21 SOG compared to our 19.

Here was a ten-skater scrum at our bench-side half-boards, during which the two smallest guys on the ice, Matsumoto a0nd Chris Bourque, got into a jersey-hauling contest. LOL. Battle of the featherweights. :) When he dust cleared, the Phantoms somehow wound up with the PK, as we had two guys in the box to the Bears' one. Fortunately, the Bear was Giroux, so that's one threat removed.

Oh, WHAT game is this ref watching? Another ten-skater scrum, this time behind our net, leads to ONLY Bellamy going off. GRRRRRR...

But the period ends before anything much can happen.

At the end of the second period, the score is Bears 2, Phantoms 1, and the SOG (thanks to the two recent Bears Pps) are now Bears 27, Phantoms 20.

The Phantoms will have 1:45 of PK time remaining at the beginning of the third period.

Heh heh heh... a Bear just boarded himself trying to hit Kempe. :D

We are nearly 5 minutes into the period, and we have not had a shot on goal yet. The Bears, meanwhile, have a total of 31 shots in the game. Ah, there we go, we get a puck on net even as I type.

Ah, here comes a PP. Let's see if we can cash in on the team with the AHL's worst PK. No dice that time,but three minutes later, here we go again with another PP. GO PHANTOMS, tie the game, guys!

No dice there, either, BUT Maroon has a BREAKAWAY.... drat, he missed the net.

With 6:20 left in=2 0the third period, SOG are Bears 34, Phantoms 25. The score remains 2-, Bears.

Kempe tries a drop pass to JVR, but it gets picked off. Oops.

NUTS. A few shifts later, a Bear scores from the top of the slot to make it 3-1. Drat times ten. We have about 5 minutes left, and SOG are Bears 37, Phantoms 25.

They tried it again but Aubin stopped a shot through a multi-player screen.

Whoa, The Wrong Giroux gets a four-minute infraction with 1:58 left. Two for interference and two for unsportsmanlike conduct... GO PHANTOMS! Tie it!

Matsumoto's line with Syvret and Sbisa SCOOOORE! #-2 with under two minutes left and we are still on the PP!

One minute left in the period,and Sirianni, Kempe, JVR, Maroon (four forwards) and Syvret AAAAAAH how did that puck stay out? Arrgh/ Ten-skater scrum behind the net now with 16.2 seconds left. Timeout Phantoms. 50 seconds remain in the PP. GO GO GO!

The goalie is pulled now=2 0and we have Sbisa, Syvret, Maroon, Sirianni, Kempe, and JVR out. But time runs out on us-before we can tie the game.

BTW, as our captain and one of our assistant captains were scratched tonight (Kane and Ross), we went with three As. Syvret is an assistant captain for us normally, and tonight he was joined by Matsumoto and Curry.