Well, that's ONE way to be apprised of a callup. The Phantoms Phan Club has its monthly Secret Phan gift collection in the reception area by the Will Call window. I was dropping off a gift bag, and I had to navigate around a large bag of hockey gear and a bundle of hockey sticks to get in the door.
I thought little of it until I got a better look at the bag. It had Jared Ross's FLYERS number on it, as well as clearly being marked with Flyers logos. In short, it looked pretty darn official.
And it is. Ross is called up to the Flyers. Looks like the Bears get off easy tonight, since one of our best offensive weapons is off the roster.
Our scratches are Ross, Bellamy, and Hersley.
Our starting lineup is Munroe, Bartulis, Curry, Raduns, Clackson,and Kalinski. I can't help but notice the vote of confidence being given to our rookie line, with this selection. :)
Chase Trull, whom we just called up from Mississippi, is wearing number 22.
Two seconds into the game, Clackson immediately squared off with Amadio. It was an active fight, not a hug-fest, and Clackson got the takedown. Way to set the tone for the weekend early, Matt. :)
Another line combo is out: Kane, Giroux, and Szwez.
Drat. With 17:56 left in the period, Hershey scored. It was a rising shot that went in as Scott was headed down into a butterfly, and it found daylight. Hershey has 3 shots on goal, we haven't got any.
Next line combo: Matsumoto, Klotz, and Maroon.
Even-strength D pairs: Curry/Bartulis, DeSantis/Ratchuk, Syvret/Guenin.
Logically, the last remaining line should be Laliberte, Trull, and Beaulieu, as they are our remaining three forwards. However, it's Laliberte, Trull, and Matsumoto on the ice at the moment. I believe Beaulieu is dressed for the first time this season. That is, unless he saw ice time during our road games over the weekend, but I honestly don't think he was in the lineup at that time. Meanwhile Matsumoto is seeing double duty on this line at the moment as well as his own (with Klotz and Maroon).
13:58 left: we have five rookies out at once -- Raduns, Maroon, Kalinski, Ratchuk, and DeSantis.
12:50 It must be fun for the play-by-play guys right about now; both teams' Girouxs are out at the same time. BTW, the Bears have 5 SOG right now, and we have 1.
Laliberte tried unsuccessfully to split two defenders in Hershey's slot. We need to have a word with the young guys about flying solo during these high-risk plays. It's a habit that we really need to discourage.
Oh, what a scoring chance,! We had Matsumoto in the Hershey crease battling for a loose puck. Unfortunately, it squeaked out behind him (with some help from the goalie), and a Bears defenseman took it out of harm's way.
Moments later, SCORE -- Kane from Giroux to tie the score at 1-1. Somehow, this was only our third SOG... That doesn't seem right; I thought we had more than that, but what the hey. As long as one of our shots went IN, that's what matters.
Clackson is about to go off for interference. The Philly fans respectfully disagree. ;)
PK unit: Raduns, Kalinski, Guenin, Syvret. Again, we have rookies being handed a lot of responsibility. So far on this PK, our guys are letting Munroe see the puck clearly, and the Bears' shots have come from out by the point and the blue line. Next PK unit: Kane, Giroux, Syvret, Guenin. Then Raduns, Kalinski, Curry, Bartulis. I would love to see us clear the darn thing out. Oddly enough, all the players from both teams have drifted to the half of the ice on Munroe's right. Whoa, Scotty just stopped a bouncing puck that looked like the animated dot from a karaoke song.
Guenin blocks a shot after laying flat-out on the ice. I swear, if he doesn't lead the league in blocked shots, I'd like to know who's ahead of him and how many aspirin said shot-blocking leader takes in a day Guenin is freakng fearless when it comes to getting in front of a puck.
We successfully killed the penalty, even though we basically spent the entire two minutes in our end.
Laliberte just BURIED the Bears #23. There must be a dent in the boards where he made contact. NICE hit.
Clackson made a nice head's-up move, making sure he was on the Bears side of the red line before dumping the puck deep into the Hershey zone at the end of a shift.
With three minutes left, we have 4 SOG and the Bears have 12.
Maroon had a nice breakout with Matsumoto, but he couldn't get the puck over to him. The Hershey defender was in position to prevent the pass. It was a good try, though, and it's what we want to see our guys do more of. Speaking of breaking out, don't look now but our three rookie forwards are on a three-on-two charging into the Bears end, with a minute remaining in the period. Unfortunately, *NO*-body was anywhere near the rebound, and a Bear eventually got to the biscuit first. I'm a little surprised at this goalie Varlamov -- that was an immense rebound right into the slot. That's not something I'd expect from him.
SOG at the end of the first period: Phantoms: 8, Hershey:12.
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