Phantoms at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 3-18-09: Third Period, OT, and Shootout

The Phantoms' PK has been absolutely stellar so far in this game. Munroe deserves to add another "star of the game" selection to his collection for the season, and his teammates are making a solid case to join him.

Unfortunately, the darned thorn in our side known as Janne Pesonen, who got five points in the previous game against the Phantoms and has already scored tonight, is the one that finally found a way to get a puck past Munroe and tie the game,

But with 9 minutes left in the third period, the Phantoms are about to go on our second PP of the game. Munroe proceeds to have to poke check a puck away from a SH attacker. Now the Matsumoto line is out with Kukkonen and DeSantis. On the next shift, Ross, Kane, and Sirianni tested the living daylights out of Curry-the-goalie but somehow the puck stayed out.

Now there is a(nother) penalty on the Phantoms, the validity of which the announcer has voiced an objection. But to the PK we go. Matsumoto not only clears the puck, but speeds up to take it with Ross for a SH 2-on-1. OH, they have to call this trip -- another Penguin came up behind Matsumoto and hauled him down to prevent the breakaway.

Yep, they call it, so we will spend about a minute (slightly less, actually) at 4-on-4 before embarking on a PP of our own.

On the PP, Ross, Kane, and Sirianni got a nice chance when they got it to Ross and he one-timed the puck, but he didn't get good wood on it (or whatever the darn sticks are made of... didn't get good composite on it?) and Curry-the-goalie made the stop.

We have three minutes remaining in regulation time, and the PP is over. Kalinski is in a dispute with Satan. Nice to see he's so fiesty that even an NHL veteran doesn't intimidate him. :)

At the end of regulation, the score remains tied at 2-2, so we are going into OT. Matsumoto did his part by winning the faceoff in our zone with six seconds remaining. Good job.

The team we are chasing for the final playoff slot, Binghamton, is winning by three goals in the final frame of their contest, so if we want to maintain our current distance of 8 points between them and us, we need a hero tonight. Go Phantoms!

WOW -- the first stoppage of play in the OT came about three minutes into the five-minute extra session. In the shift that led up to the offensive-zone draw, Ross and Sirianni were getting some nice chances. Curry-the-goalie had to freeze the puck to prevent things from gettng out-of-hand.

Eek... that was close. Just as the Pens got set up in our zone, OT ended. So we are going into a shootout. Which provides me the opportunity to say, yet again, that I FREAKING HATE SHOOTOUTS!!! Argh argh argh!

But in any case, the Zambonis are out to clear a path for the shooters. It is the 8th shootout for both teams. So far, the Pens are 4-3 and the Phantoms are 5-2 in shootouts this season.

AHL shootouts go five rounds to start with

Pens Satan -- yes
Matsumoto -- no

Pens Pesonen -- yes
Ross -- YES

Pens -- Letestu -- no
Maroon -- no

Pens Goligoski -- no
Sirianni -- no

Pens Taffe -- no
Guenin -- no

The Penguins win the shootout 2-1 and the game 3-2. We drop to 9 points behind the Senators in the standings. Pesonen got two goals during regulation and his shootout goal was the game-winner. Pittsburgh needs to call this dude up and KEEP him up.

The stars are #3 Munroe (told ya!); #2 Curry-the-goalie; #1 Pesonen (no surprise there).

Here's to some REVENGE on Friday when we see this team again in Philly!