Phantoms vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 12-26-08: Third Period

Paddock appears to be doing a little bit of tweaking. Maroon and Nodl have swapped lines at the start of this period. Now we're on the PK, and our first forward pairing was Kane/Raduns (not Ross). Our second forward pair was Matsumoto/Ross. Now it's Kane/Nodl.

Fortunately, Munroe is sharp, as we gave up four shots in the first three-mnutes-and-change of the period.

Yiiii, that was a near miss. Munroe stopped a shot and the puck just wound up lying there next to the crease. Fortunately, our D arrived before the Pens forwards could get there, and removed the puck from the danger zone.

Not a lot has gone on in the past few minutes. Unfortunately, that string of not-a-lot was broken by another Penguin goal that clanged in by way of the post. Heck.

Our ref is a colossal dunce. He called Clackson for cross-checking, but at the same time he called Ratchuk for two-for-unsportsmanlike AND an additional ten minutes. What a bunch of malarky. Too bad he can't get retroactive coal in his stocking. Dude, you're a ref and we just gave up a goal moments ago. Our players are going to have a short fuse. GET OVER IT, you thin-skinned zebra.

Crumbs. In the first minute of our two-man disadvantage, the Pens put one in that hit Munroe and then bounced up and over him. Darn fluky pinball shot... Even the bounces don't seem to want to cooperate tonight. 4-0, Bad Guys.

I would at least like to see us scrub that goose-egg off the scoreboard in the next eight minutes.

We have some more line-rearranging in progress, as Ryan and Bellamy are on the ice with Matsumoto. Come to think of it, I have hardly seen Klotz since the fight... He's on the bench, though. I hope he's not injured.

Here comes a PP. Let's see if we get some good stuff THIS time. Goodness knws this ref has been whistle-happy all game long. Kane, Ross, Maroon, Syvret, and DeSantis are out. (We're back to three forwards on the man advantage.) Kane has been the one stationing himself at the crease most of the time tonight. (So of course, as I type that, Maroon takes up that spot. LOL.) We just came tantalizingly close to putting a 1 on the scoreboard, but no dice.

We're back to even strength now. Paddock must have heard me typing, since Klotz is going out with Maroon and Raduns.

It's the final minute of the game, and we are still looking to get a puck behind Curry-the-goalie. We also have a a PP, for whih we have Klotz, Matsumoto, Sirianni, Syvret, and Curry-the-defenseman on the ice. Unfortunately, the goose egg remained on the board until the final horn. File this night's outing under "Boy, was it ever not our day". So here's to the Phantoms kicking some butt on the road this week, and coming back on January 2 (at **6:00 PM**; make note of the uncharacteristically early start time) It was our first regulation loss in the entire month of December, so I'll slide the team a bit of a break this time around. But we can't make a habit of playing like we did tonight, or all that hard-earned ground that we have gained on the teams ahead of us will be lost in no time flat.

The three stars of the game were all Penguins, not surprisingly (Curry, Minard, and Taffe).

Here's to seeing our own guys put in the stellar performances, instead of the opposition, from here on out.