Phantoms vs. Hershey Bears, 10-16-2009, Second Period

The first penalty of the night is about to be awarded to Hershey. Beagle will sit. Our first unit is Jones, Ratchuk, Matsumoto (who is planted at the crease and has gotten a couple nice chances), Laliberte, and Maroon. MAROOOOON scores and spoils the Bears' perfect PP record for the season! NICE.

The next line is Ross, Klotz, and Clackson. Jones and Ratchuk are on D. (I haven't heard the assists announced yet on the goal, btw.) Sugden gets into Jones's face, but he doesn't take the bait. Klotz and Clackson are on the ice at the time, but the little dispute didn't turn into dropped equipment or fisticuffs.

Matsumoto, Maroon, and Laliberte are out again, this time with Curry and another defenseman I can't see. We have seven D dressed again, BTW. We have done that for every game wso far this season. I figured as much when I saw Ross out with Klotz/Clackson, as Ross also has a different pair of regular linemates.

QAssists on the goal went to Matsumoto and Jones. It was just announced.

Oh, come on, Kalinski gets hauled down and no call, and then a moment later Kaspar gets a call? Dang it. Well, the game has not been a whistle-fest so far, so I won't gripe much. Anyway, we are going on our first PK of the night. Matsumoto, Laliberte, Mormina, and Curry are out. Curry blocks a shot. (Boy, that's one thing I miss typing... we got a ton and a half of blocked shots last season, courtesy of Nate Guenin, but he's no longer on the team.) Now we have Kaliski, Ross, Jones, Marshall (who makes a nice clear).

We are at even strength again, and though Backlund coughed up the puck, he also made a nice stop and froze the puck. He'd had a bit of trouble playing the puck behind the net (and cancelling out a Hershey icing in the process).

Ross, Nodl, and Ward are a line tonight. Oops, lol, a Bear kind of ran over a linesman in the Phantoms' end. The fans, of course, approve. ;)

NICE save by Backlund on a breakaway by Bouchard. Just great. Hearty cheers ensue from the stands. :) But I would like to see us get rid of the Bears now, as they're spending a bit more time in our end than I'd like. Oh, there we go, Ross's line is out and we're going out to try and give Neuvirth an interesting night.

The Phantoms are getting ready to go on the PK again, but surprisingly, Ciamaga didn't stop play the first time the Phantoms got possession of the puck. Neuvirth then had time to head to the bench for the extra attacker. In any event, Curry goes for slashing a Bear's stick. Ross/Nodl are our PK forwards, and Nodl gets tripped. No call. This is quite the departure from the officiating style that was in effect the last time we had a combination of Ciamaga, Phantoms, and Bears.

The penalty ends, and we wind up with a giant shoving match in front of the Hershey net. We have some guys in the sin bin, but we seem to be 4 on 4. Drat. Beagle scores to tie the game. 1-1. We're still 4 on 4. We get a really nice bit of pressure going toward the end of the period. Too bad that Hershey was saved by the buzzer, as the period ended. We returned to full strength just before the end of the period. The score is 1-1. SOG: Hershey 15, Phantoms 12.