Phantoms at Hershey 11-29-08: Second Period

We began this period shorthanded. We seem to have woken up from whatever daze we were in during the first 20 minutes. Or, at the very least, we lok a lot better on this PK than we did at even strength or at any other point of the first period. Good, there we go, we killed that penalty. Now let's see if we can keep this newfound effectiveness going.

Well it would be nice if we could actually do something like get out of our zone now that we're back to 5 on 5. We finally wound up icing the darn puck to get it out.

And Darren Reid, our former player, scores on a screened shot right from the faceoff. 5-0 bad guys. It's Hershey's 18th shot of the game. I'm surprised to hear that it's Reid's first goal of the year, considering that last season, he started the season on our top scoring line. I sure did hate to see him go, during the offseason.

Man, what does it take to get ourselves into the flipping Bears zone? The closest we came was when Powe was racing in with the puck, only to be swept off his feet and lose the puck when the Hershey defenseman made a sliding block. Then the Bears got a 2-on-1 the other way.

Guenin went to the sin bin for cross-checking, but 27 seconds later, Hershey took an interference penalty, so we will be at 4 on 4 for a while. Powe is out with Matsumoto. Hershey netminder Machesney has an answer for a couple of Phantoms shots, but when the Bears head back to the Phantoms end, Alexandre Giroux (the Wrong Giroux) collides full speed with Scott Munroe. We will have a 4 on 3 PP, and at some point n time we'll hae a short 5 on 3.

During all this,  Bears Dman Amadio scores on a shorthanded breakaway. 6-0 Hershey. This is murder. Teslak has his gloves on, but not his mask. Munroe is still in the game. Hershey kills the penalty, and The Wrong Giroux gets a breakaway coming out of the penalty box. We don't get scored on, but we do pick up a hooking penalty. We are being outshot 22-7, with 12 minutes and change remaining in the second period, which should give an indication of just how lopsided this game has been.

Not long afterward, just as the we were told that the shots are 25-9 in favor of the Bears, and Hershey scores again. Teslak is now on the way into the game. I can agree with our announcer that it's not Munroe's fault that we're in this deep of a hole.

Oh, come on, ref! Ryan Fraser is calling Matsumoto for slashing. TWO SECONDS after he was blatantly tripped right in front of the ref and no call was made. Syvret had enough issues with this, and told Fraser about them in enough detail, that he got a ten-minute misconduct and we won't see him again until the third period. Freaking ridiculous. So we're back on the bleeping PK once again, when what we should be on is a powerplay. I wouldn't be quite this steamed, except for CRYING OUT LOUD can something go the heck right for this team in this game?

A-*hem*. Pardon my rant. Now we have a fight between Curry and Whelar. Neither of them landed a lot of punches, both of them threw some haymakers that missed, but Whelar did get the judo throw that hauled Curry to the ice. We have three minutes and change remaining, so the gladiators will be heading up the tunnel to get a head start on the intermission.

Here's a stat that I hope we don't have to revisit at any point tonight: the Phantoms have never given up more than 8 goals in a game, and the game in question was an 8-6 loss in October 1997.

Clackson and Amadio get into a minor scuffle. It didn't escalate to a point where penalties would be called, normally, but in this case the players got coincidental roughing minors. There go two more guys up the tunnel early. Geesh, we are going to start the period with three guys in the sin bin, presuming that no additional infractions get assessed before the period ends. FINALLY, we get the tenth shot of the game. Our team low for SOG is 12, and our road low for SOG is 13, so again, here's hoping that we don't have occasion to mention either of those stats again in this game.

The form of torture known as the second period of this game is over, with the Bears leading 7-0. Hershey also leads on the shot clock, 31(!!!)-10.