Phantoms vs. Providence Bruins 2-28-09: Second Period

I got a delayed start on blogging the second period, as I got hung up in a long concession line. (There is a sale on merchandise tonight, with 20-25% off most items, and lots of peope decided to take advantage of the savings.)

Anyway, I could hear that we got some power plays, and I could see the TV in the Fan Gear store, but the only thing we racked up so far has been shots on goal. At the time that we are sending a player to the sin bin, with 8:33 remaining in the second period, the Phantoms have 21 SOG compared to the Bruins' 19. However, we are now about to see Maroon sit for two minutes, so it's time for us to keep the Bad Guys away from our net.

We now have 37 seconds more of penalty to kill, and I'm very pleased so far. We haven't allowed even one shot on goal, and we have succeeded in clearing the puck repeatedly throughout this entire PK. It's been a textbook shorthanded situation so far.

Here goes Matsumoto and Laliberte with a SH 2 on 2. We didn't get a shot, but we did chew up a few more seconds. And there's Maroon, out of the box. We did it. Oh, and the moment we went on the attack, a Bruin tried to take the puck from Maroon and the ref called play dead. We are on another PP, moments after we returned to even strength. Syvret, Kukkonen, Nodl, Kane, and Giroux are out. Syvret seems to want to go for the top fo an umbrella formation, but Kukkonen keeps heading toward the point. This is interesting. Then Kukkonen eased his way to the top of the slot and fired on net. Too bad the rebound went to the opposite side from where our guy was standing at the crease's edge, lookng for a loose puck to ca in.

Next up: Curry, Ratchuk, Matsumoto, Laliberte, and Maroon. Maroon is crease-sitting. Curry and Ratchuk have no debate over whether to man the points or try the umbrella formation... They are at the points. Whoops... Curry pnched in to about the top of the faceoff circle, and the puck got behind him. This led to a SH breakout by the Bruins, but Aubin stopped the shot on goal. We did end up with a defensive-zone draw as a result.

Oddly enough, we were not credited with any shots during that PK. I am not entirely sure that's correct, to put it midly. I could have sworn we got one or two. But in any case, with 3:38 remaining in the period, the SOG are even at 21-21, the score is even at 2-2, and the teams are playng 5 on 5.

We had one interesting exchange where Maroon and a Bruin whose number I couldn't see got in one another's face, as the Bs were heading out of their end. The linesman intervened and play continued. However, again, in the final two minutes, we got a penalty. This time it was Matsumoto. So we will be shorthanded for the remainder of this period and into the next one. SOG are 22-22.

The period is over, and the SOG are now Bruins 24, Phantoms 22. The score remains 2-2. The Phantoms will have 43 seconds of PK time remaining at the start of the third period.