Phantoms vs. Hamilton Bulldogs 2-16-09: Third Period

ARGH. Hamilton's first shot of the period, at 18 seconds, just barely squeaks past Munroe and in. 3-1, Bad Guys. Steve Gainey needs to be nicer to his former team than that! :sulk sulk sulk:

The Phantoms retaliate by scoring on OUR first shot if the period, however. :) Raduns does the honors, with an assist from Bartulis. 3-2, Bad Guys.

The Phantoms' PK soon afterward, when Clackson got sent off for elbowing, was truncated when Laliberte early got a shorthanded breakaway. Hamilton's defender got called for holding, resulting in some 4-on-4 play. We will have a 35-second PP in a few seconds.

Aaaaaaa, and Maroon's position at the crease nearly allowed him to tie the game. We got a nice little flurry going before Hamilton cleared it. Eventually, we wound up at even strength with SOG of Hamilton 24, Phantoms 20. Coach seems to be tweawith about eight and a half minutes left in the period. Coach looks like he's tweaking the lines a little bit here and there. Sirianni Bellamy and Raduns are out right now. They swap for Ross, Nodl, and Kane, and we end up with a lot of end-to-end movement on this shift. None of the action involves a puck reaching either net, however.

Crowd volume ramps up noticeably when Matsumoto goes charging up the middle, with Laliberte and Maroon in tow. Everyone knows that line is dangerous. :) They get us an offensive-zone faceoff.

SOG are 25-25. Come on, guys. We can tie this.

With 6:44 left, Hamilton called their timeout. We had another offensive zone draw. Meanwhile, someone in my row is a season-ticket-holder who was awarded a game-worn jersey. Hmm. Yoo-hoo, I've been a STH since the first year, just not with the same name from the beginning. I shared another person's multi-seat subscription for the first two years, then had my own subscription under my maiden name for a whie before marrying and using my current name from then on. But I digress. ;)

With 4:53, our alumnus Steve Gainey heads to the sin bin an we get the PECOOOOOO POWER PLAY. This time it's Syvret who keeps heading to the top of the umbrella. Kukkonen is out with him, as are Laliberte, Maroooooon :) and Matsumoto. Freaking Hamilton keeps finding ways to clear the puck. Kane, Ross, Nodl, Ratchuk, and Curry take over. Curry blasts one from the point into the goalie's bread basket. Faceoff time. Ross takes the point an Curry pinches waaay in. THis PP is making me nervous, as we keep having two guys behind the Hamilton goal line and no one at the crease. That's not a PP formation that we've had success with, let's just say that. PP over, 2:23 left, SOG Hamilton 28, Phantoms 27. And so much for even strength -- Kane just got called for slashing. Arrrrrrrgh, so we will end up killing a freaking penalty for nearly all the rest of regulation time. Farg. OK, guys, shorty time. Matsumoto and Laliberte get it down to the Bulldogs' end. Looks like Hamilton is getting called for icing. The forwards are replaced with Ross and Raduns, and the D Syvret and Guenin remain out.

22.4 seconds left. PK over. Phantoms call timeout. We have a faceoff in our end, so Munroe remains in goal. Matsumoto, Laliberte, Kane, Kukkonen, and Syvret are out. As we break out, Munroe gets halfway to the bench before having to stop. Finally he gets off, Ross comes on, and OH we come sooooo close to burying one before the freaking horn sounds. Final score, Hamilton 3, Phantoms 2. SOG 29-29. Stars: 3 Raduns, #2 Denis (Hamilton), #1 Gainey (Hamilton).