Phantoms at Binghamton Senators 1-21-09: Third Period

With 11:41 left in the third period, there hasn't been a whole lot to report. Gerber has been murder, particularly in a sequence where Matsumoto and Maroon combined for three consecutive shots on goal. Gerber is down from the Ottawa Senators on a conditioning assignment. I wonder if we can convince the Ottawa Sens that Gerber is fit enough to be called up right now, as in "before this period is over"? ;)

Our announcer just told a story about former Flyer Denis Hamel's one-timers. When Bingo was practicing in Philly, he shot a puck right through the end glass during the morning skate... his shot went above the net and not only hit the glass, but penetrated the glass and went about ten feet back into the seats. To quote Brian Smith, "If that had happened during a game, it would have killed the goal judge." Good grief! If I ever get a seat behind Hamel's opponent's net, remind me to wear a goalie mask to the game.

We have just given up our 38th shot on goal. Prior to Sunday's game, we had eleven consecutive games where we gave up at least 38 shots. We had a welcome break from that trend on Sunday, but unfortunately, we appear to have gone right back into letting our goaltender see truckloads of rubber per game.

Munroe has gone to the bench, and Bellamy is the 6th skater. We have 1:44 left to play, and I'm thinking of a prior road game this very season when we managed to put in two very-late goals with our netminder pulled. Paddock has called timeout with a faceoff in the Binghamton zone. Whatever we did that night, let's do it again, shall we? Nodl, Maroon, Matsumoto, Ross, Laliberte, and Syvret are our skaters. (Only one defenseman is in that group.) Unfortunately, when play resumes, the Senators managed to get hold of the puck and put in an empty-net goal despite Syvret's attempts to fill in as a goaltender. The score is now 3-0, Senators.

And there goes the final horn. Martin Gerber has earned a 32-save shutout, and the Phantoms were outshot 41-32.

Our next two games are at home on Friday and Saturday, vs. the Manchester Monarchs and Lake Erie Monsters, respectively. From there, we will go into the All-Star Break.