Prospects game: Flyers vs Capitals, 9/11/09: Third Period

PP line to start the period:: Nodl, JVR, Labrecque, Yadlowski, Bourdon. This is clearly our top scoring line for the game, with both Nodl and JVR on it. JVR plants himself at the crease again. He is a BIG guy, or the Caps D are medium-sized; either way, he towers over them and the goalie (who appears to be in for the entire game). Actually, if I remember the name from last season, the Capitals' backup is a guy from their front office, who filled in as backup during the season last year. So I wouldn't say he's on their depth chart. :)

ANYWAY, back to reality. nice butterfly stop by DeSerres, after a couple minutes' worth of inactivity as we were in the Washington end. Clackson Thomas Hostetter Lehtivuori Beaulieu. Another feisty line, with Clacker and Beau on it, :They rush it to the Caps end, and Beau blasts the puck in from the point so we can make a line change.

Back in our end, and DeSerres keeps his cool during a scramble where the puck squeaked by our defender Yadlowski and in on goal anyway.

This period has had a lot more end-to-end play, rather than long stretches spent in one zone or the other. 4:45 left in the period: SOG Flyers 23, Capitals 28 and the Flyers are about to get a PP.

Nice D in front of the Caps net prevented Wellwood fro9m getting a chance at the creases edge. Bah, a Capital strips Lehtivuori of the puck behind our net. The ensuing shot attempt against us goes wide. We dodged that bullet, and back we go to the Caps end. Washington keeps clearing the puck on us, though, so we are not doing much on this PP. We haven't really been able to set up. Oh, there goes the goalie freezing the puck, so maybe we will get a chance from the faceoff.; JVR and Nodl in front just can't get a handle on the puck, though they try. A bit of scrambling around in the Caps end later, the PP is over. Out come Rinaldo Clackson, Thomas, Sloane, Marshall. NICE defensive positioning by Sloane to keep a rebound from being shot into the wide open net. No way could DeSerres have gone post to post that fast.

SCOOOORE on the ensuing rush! 6-3 Flyers. SOG Flyers 25, Capitals 29. There were just over 11 minutes remaining in the period.

OK, we are getting this back and forth tendency again. The Flyers are not a team that's constructed for river hockey, so even though this is our prospects and not the regular team, I would like to see us settle down and start pressuring the Capitals in their own end again. There, they must have heard me typing, as we are set up in front of Washington's net. Not that we got any SOG to show for it, but time spent in their end is time spent not defending OUR net. So that works for me, too.

Another shift, and down we go to the Caps end again. This time it's JVR/Nodl's line. Rinaldo is the third forward, and he charges the puck down the ice like it's on fire. The save gets made, but Rinaldo is another one who has created nice chances for himself in this game.  I'm pleased with him and Labrecque.

Pooh, I hate when I can't see over everyone standing up and a fight is in progress.; Finally, the bout came out far enough to the center that I could see Clackson whaling away on number 65, Jasinsky. When the linesmen pried them apart, Jasinsky was yelling goodness-knows-what at Clackson. I don't think he was offering to send Christmss cards to Clackson, though. Speaking of whom, Clackson is departing the game with 8:02 remaining. So, it seems, is the Caps' 88, Bruess. Boy, I really do hope we get a box score. I would love to know what that was about, as Bruess wasn't even in the fight.

JVR!!! Scores! People wave hats at him, as the netting prevents us from throwing them onto the ice.

Klotz also got into it with someone a few minues later. He started off dominating the bout, then the Cap got in some licks of his  own... but the end result was a largely jerseyless Capital.

Bellamy and someone else (Bouchard) get into a jawing match. Both wound up going off for two minutes. The rest of the game was played at 4 on 4, as there was 1:51 remaining at the time.

The final score was Flyers 7, Capitals 3. SOG Flyers 27, Capitals 32.