Phantoms vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 2-3-09: Third Period

Raduns is in the box, about four minutes into the period. Ross still managed to charge up the ice, carrying the puck, and crash the net. Literally. I'm going to presume that the ref decided a enguin steered him into the goaltender, because he collided with Curry-the-goalie and there was no penalty assessed for goalie interference.

Back in our zone, NICE clear by Kane. He went diving to the ice, but instead of sliding along on his belly, he swept his stick in a giant arc and sent the puck bouncing out of the zone, right past the Penguins defender who was trying to keep it in.

Now we're in the Pens' end, and I see the referee's arm. The sin that is sending a Penguin into the sin bin was not visible to me from where I sit, as it happened in the one corner I don't have a clear view of. However, I know it's an impending PP for us because the fans at that end are applauding.

And sure enough, here we go on the PECOOOOO POWER PLAY. Matsumoto Nodl, Maroon, DeSantis, and Syvret are out. They're being replaced by Ross, Kane, Laliberte, Syvret, and Curry-the-Dman. Laiberte fires a bomb from the half-boards, but Curry-the-goalie fends it off and a Pens defender whacks the rebound out of reach of the Good Guys. Just as the W-B penaty ends, we have found ourselves in OUR zone. That's not something I ike to see, since it means Munroe can't take the time to warn our guys that the Penguin is about to return to the ice. Fortunately, the return to even stength passes without incident. Meanwhile, with ten and a half minutes left in the period, the SOG are even at 22-22. This game has been as even of a contest as I've seen in a while. Neither team has camped out infinitely in the other team's end for eons on end. In one respet, that's a good thing, as we've been the victim of that problem rather too often in recent weeks. On the other hand, I sure would like to see us give Curry-the-Goalie a prolonged stretch or three of high activity.

Unfortunately, the first bout of activity that just registered on the scoreboard involved the Pens' next two shots on goal, the second of which went into our net. Blah. We have 8:49 left in the period. TIme to fire up the afterburners. BTW, considering what slop the roads are around here, Im'm pretty impressed to hear some Pens fans in the crowd. They live at a higher elevation so they tend to get even more of the nasty stuff than we do, so they're gong to go through at least a couple hours' worth of some charming (NOT!) weather on their drive home. Win or lose, I hope they get home OK.

Syvret blasts from the left point with three minutes and change remaining. Kane in the crease tries his darnedest to bat the puck in, but no dice. This time.

BLAST. Another scrum in front of our net finishes with aggravation. I thought that the Pen at the right post was the one that deflected it in, but he's not the one getting credit for the goal. Too many people and legs were in close to our crease.

With 1:33 left, and the Phantoms trailing 3-1, Munroe hads to the bench as we get a faqceoff in the Penguins end. Ross, Kane, Matsumoto, Laliberte, Syvret, and Curry-the-Dman are out. If we can get create a forest of legs in front of Curry-the-Goalie, we can pull the same stunt on the Pens that they just pulled on us a moment ago.

Nope, no dice. Mormina of the Pens blasts the puck the lenfth of the ice and into our empty net. Munroe returns to the net, as it's now a 4-1 game.

There goes the final horn. The score is Penguins 4, Phantoms 1, and the SG at the end of the game are Phantoms 22, Penguins 27. (Hey, giving up fewer than 30 shots in a game has not been our trend of late, so at least I see improvement on THAT stat, even in a loss.)

We'll be back here vs. Hershey on Friday.