Phantoms at Hershey Bears 2-21-09: Second Period

As I sit here looking at tonight's box score, I realize that we have had Terry Koharski as the referee two nights in a row. Hmm...

Depending on how he does tonight, we can always offer him a seat in the Dunk Tank at tomorrow's Flyers Wives Carnival. :D

Darn it, The Wrong Giroux just tied the score 1-1.Actually, maybe he needn't be referred to by that name tonight, as the Phantoms' Giroux is up with the Flyers. But in any event, I really wish Washington would just call Giroux the heck up and KEEP him there. Pain in the tail Phantoms killer. ;)

WTG MATSUMOTO, he steals the puck and gets it to Laliberte to get the one-goal lead back! 2-1 Phantoms!

SZWEZ promptly scores less than 30 seconds later, and Hershey's coach is switching goalies. We are only 2:45 into a rather eventful period. This goal was unassisted. 3-1 Phantoms.

Matsumoto just did precisely what a forward is supposed to do when his defenseman breaks his stick: he gave Sean Curry his own twig. This could have made life rather interesting for Curry, as Matsumoto is a good six inches shorter than he is, plus one shoots left and the other hoots right. Also, per Brian Smith, Matsumoto has "the strangest tape job I've ever seen". LOL But Curry does manage to clear the puck without incident. :)

Speaking of Curry, it's now a few shifts later and he is about to go to the sin bin. Raduns manages to pilfer the puck from The Wrong Giroux and get a shorthanded scoring chance, but nothing comes of that. Besides some time chewed off the penalty kill, that is. Kane also managed to haul the puck up the ice shortly thereafter. Now we are back at even strength, so we dodged the PK bullet.

MUNROE -- terrific save! Gotta love him! :)

It's now the Bears' turn to kill a penalty. And it appears to be OUR turn to fend off a Bears rush. OK, guys, let's go down to the other end and bug Hershey's goalie for a while. BLAST. Freaking Bears. The moment we returned to even strength, Hershey scored on a double deflection. 3-2 Phantoms.

What? Hershey is getting ready to go to the penalty box again -- one of our guys got high-sticked right after the faceoff. Joudry has earned a double minor, so we have got to make good on this chance. Ross, Nodl, Kane, Curry, and Syvret are out. These guys stayed out long enough to be gassed by the end of the shift. Next up, Matsumoto, Maroon, Laliberte, Ratchuk, Kukkonen, SCOOOOORE! Maroon buries one stick side during the second half of the double minor! 4-2 Phantoms! Nodl must have just come back out, because he and Ratchuk got the assists. That was Maroon's 20th goal of the season. NICE!

Rats. Kane now goes off for four minutes, having high-sticked Osala. Ouch. We will be starting the third period on the PK. At the end of the second period, the score is 4-2 Phantoms. SOG: Phantoms 19, Bears 17.