Phantoms vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 3-11-09: Second Period

This is, and always will be, a family-friendly blog, but OOOO does that ever mean keeping myself from typing out some vocabuary that's best left unexpressed. We took an early penalty for my UNFAVORITE infraction, Delay of the Game, and gave up a PP goal on the first Pens shot. 5-1, Evil Flightless Waterfowl.

We are currently killing a penalty to Clackson for boarding, and so far that's going as we would like it to. Including the goal against, we have only given up three SOG in two shortanded situations, so that's good.

FINALLY, we get a shot on goal of our own with nearly five and a half minutes gone in the period. I do realize that about three of those minutes were spent shorthanded; however, we really need to start getting pucks on Curry-the-goalie ASAP.

Clackson and a Penguin were jawing with each other, but for whatever reason, it didn't come to anything.

The Penguins scored right off the faceoff, just after this, making it 6-1 Penguins. Geesh, this game is painful. I am, however, a firm believer in not exiting the building until the final horn unless the Fire Marshall is evacuating the building. So I am here for the duration. SOG: Penguins 20, Phantoms 10.

ANOTHER penalty, this time to Guenin for tripping. It would be nice if the zebras would remember for a moment or two that BOTH teams have taken liberties with the rules during the course of the game... It's awfully one-sided so far tonight.

Crud, Matsumoto's stick is broken. He's out there with Laliberte, Kukkonen, and Bartulis. Finally, a clear and we can get a line change. Kalinski, Raduns, Curry-the-Dman, and Syvret. Here we go on a shorthanded rush -- Raduns with Kalinski. Raduns takes the shot, but he's nearly level with the goal line by then and Curry-the-goalie is hugging the post for all he's worth. It does, at least, get us a faceoff in the Penguins' end. Now Kane nd Ross are on the attack, but we're no longer shorthanded. I'm wondering if the Pens are pulling into a bit of a defensive mode. Let's see how these next shifts go.

How they're going so far is that the Pens are the only ones handling the puck, other than Aubin. With 9:39 left in the period, we have only taken one shot in this frame. It's really sad-looking, and I know we are a better team than this.

The ref's arm was up, again, in our zone. When play stopped, and I couldn't see who it was that touched the puck so your guess is as good as mine who the penalty was originally on, Guenin gets into a shoving match behnd our net and there's a conference of all ten skaters at the boards. The end result was matching cross-checking penalties and 4 on 4 hockey.

Ross/Kane conme in on a 2-on-1. Ross passes toward Kane, but it was just a bit too far out of his rech. Had the puck gotten to Kane, he would have had a wide-open net to fire at because Curry-the-goalie was still in position to stop a shot from Ross on the far side.

We are about to embark on 1:07 of a 4 on 3 PP. Minard, who has two goals so far in this game, goes off for the Penguins. We finally get a PECOOOO POWER PLY. Maroon, Laliberte, Matsumoto, and Syvret are out. Finally: a shot. Unfortunately: a save. Fter the faceoff, the same players are out, and we keep getting in place at the crease's edge. But there is a lot of traffic in front, including two or three Pens at any given time, so the pucks are staying out. On the other hand, with 43 seconds remaining in the 5-on-4 PP, the Pens take another infraction and we go back to a two-man advantage. Syvret, Kukkonen, Ross, Kane, Sirianni. SCOOOORE, Kane! Finally all that traffic we have been ge4tting in front has paid off, plus we have 1:38 left of 5-on-4 PP. Assists to Syvret and Kukkonen. (I thought Syvret scored it, but Kanem ust have redirected. Did I mention we had plenty of bodies in front of the net?)

Matsumoto, Laliberte, Maroon, Syvret, Kukkonen are out for the remainder of the PP. Check that, lol, now it's Kalinski, Raduns, Gratton, Curry-the-Dman, and Ratchuk. We don't have a lot of PP time left. Or *do* we? Seems we are cycling the puck and the ref's arm is up. So I presume we have another couple of minutes of PP coming our way. Yep. There we go. Ross, Kane, Sirianni, Kukkonen, Syvret are out again for the PECOOOO POWER PLAY. Argh... Why did we all pinch so far in? No one was at the right pont, so when one of our guys passed back to there, it went out of the zone. With a minute left on the PP, we have Matsumoto's line with Curry-the-Dman and Ratchuk out. Matsumoto shot top shelf, but it went just a few inches high. Too bad -- it would have gone in if it'd been below the crossbar, as Curry-the-goalie wisely ducked when the puck sailed tward his head.

After that PP ends, we get ANOTHER one. Wowie. See what happens when you spend all your time in one zone? The defending team takes one infraction after another. For all these PPs, though, I'm not too happy that we only have five shots in this period. There is still 1:16 left in the period, though -- one less second than there is PK time for the Pens. (Unless, of course, we put in another goal, whioch would be nice. ;)) Aaah, of all the times to go offside... Faceoff otusize the zone. Curry, Ratchuk (whose NICE shot nearly made up for the offside gaffe), Raduns, Kalinski, Gratton. Freaking Curry-the-Goalie made a nice glove save, however.

And there goes the end of the period. The score is 6-2 Penguins, and the SOG are Penguins 25, Phantoms 15. We have one second of PP time left at the start of the third period.