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

LMHO! So when the officials come out and the music guy plays the theme from the Three Stooges, does he mean the Zebras are three stooges, or is the implication that they are Three Blind Mice? :D Either way works in the fans' opinion, heh heh heh... The song got a nice round of applause.

SCOOORE! 55 seconds into the period, with a 5 on 3 PP, Ross scores from Kukkonen and DeSantis. Gret work, guys! The score is 1-1 and we still have 1:06 of PP time remaining.

With 16:51 left, Raduns is going off for hooking. This after some NICE D from DeSantis and Guenin to get between a shooter;;and Munroe.

SPeaking of getting between the puck and the net, we just did it again with a pileup in the goalmouth. This included would-be attacker Taffe. Munroe made a nice east-west move to stop another puck shortly afterward.

Nice -- 8620 are in attendance, and for once I can honestly say that I don't notice a loud contingent of Pens fans bumping the total up. It's OUR fans tonight. Good.

We had a hairy moment when DeSantis went into the boards in the corner behind our net, face-first. The trainer came out to check on him, but he didn't need any repairs done. (It must have still been smarting, though, because he checked his jaw area one more time bare-handed before replacing his glove.)

It looks like the D on Daoust's jersey is coming off. I wonder if he was the Penguin who tried to throw a hit on one of our guys, but missed and slammed forcefully into the boards with his back? Owie. I can't say I remember seeing a time when a guy's letter started to come off the nameplate, though. Waaaay back in the Days of the Bullies, I remember seeing a namepate here or a number there start to detach from a jersey, but that was rare and it was a long time ago.

There was just a "dogpile on the Muny" moment where the crease kind of looked like a "how many people can we fit into this phone booth?" stunt. Kukkonen started throwing haymakers at the Pen who was most obviously getting into Munroe's face (literally) wihtot having been pushed there. So we are at 4 on 4, as Kukkonen and the Penguin went off for roughing.

At this point, all the guys from each team are seriously hating on all the guys from the opposing team. Now we are at the Pens' end and another large scrum took place, only next to their net instead of in the goalmouth.

Last minute of play in the third. Eeee, and a Penguin shot that Munroe did get part of brushed against the outside of the post with a faint ping. There's one bullet doeged. Ross, Kalinski, and Kane are out with Kukkonen and Guenin. (Not a regular line combo.)

AAAH! SCOOOOOOOOOOORE!!! The guys are not only h ugging, but jumping up and down in the corner, and there is 19.5 seconds left. Kalinski, the addtion to the Ross/Kane pairing, got the goal with assists from Kukkonen and Kane. OMG, the fans are practically screaming the place off its foundation. The Penguins called a timeout and pulled the goalie. But the Phantoms hold on to win, only to have a fight behind our net break out at the final horn between Kalinski and Minard.

The stars of the game were #3: Kukkonen, #2: Munroe, and the obvious choice for #1 was Kalinski.

This team's going to give me a coronary with these dramatic finishes. ;) But as long as the Phantoms are on the happy side of the drama, I won't complain.

Our next game is tomorrow night, at home, vs. Binghamton. Go Phantoms!