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

We go on the PK early on. Ross, Nodl Marshall, Mormina are out. We get some scrambling going on in front, but Nodl blocks a shot and we get a nice clear soon afterward. Kalinski, Beaulieu, Bartulis, and Curry are out. Jiminy Cricket, the moment the penalty expires, Bartulis is getting sent off. SIGH. So we are immediately back killing a penalty. Matsumoto, Laliberte, Jones, and Marshall are out. Nice clear and we get a line change in. Nodl gets the puck and carries it all the way to the Bears end, killing more time. Bleeping heck, on the next rush into the Phantoms end, Beaulieu goes to clear the puck and his stick breaks. Fortunately, we manage to get the Bears to go offside so we are able to dodge that bullet.

The penalty ends, and Kane (former Phantoms captain) takes some whacks at the goalie after Backlund covers the puck. Ross takes some punches and we have a ten-player shoving match at the boards behind Backlund. No penalties are called.

After the faceoff, we head in to the Bears end and make life interesting for Neuvirth and company. SCOOOOORE KEVIN MARSHALL! His first pro goal! Someone saves the puck for him. :) Phantoms 2, Hershey 1! Marshall from Ross and I think he said Ward.

Another penalty is coming up against the Phantoms. The Bears are going on their 5th PP, as opposed to the Phantoms' only having one man advantage. Jones sits. I hate when we lose our PKers to penalties. Kalinski, Beauleau, Bartulis, and Curry. Lots of congestion in front of our crease for a bit, but it doesn't come back to bite us. BACKLUND with a great pair of saves! Egad. Faceoff with 26 seconds left in the PK. Ross gets hauled down on a rush out of our zone, NO CALL. For gosh sakes! We live to kill the penalty, at any rate. 7 minutes and change are remaining in the third period. SAVE Backlund! He freezes it, and we keep having trouble getting the darn puck out of our end once we have the defensive zone draw. Oh, here we go, they must have heard me typing, because we finally get the heck into the Bears end.

But Hershey keeps tilting the ice down toward Backlund. They want to even the score and they're turning up the heat a lot. At last, we get back to Hershey's end, only to go offside and trigger a media timeout. Everyone gets a breather as the radio stations do their thing.

Just under 5 minutes remaining. Every time we get the puck out, Hershey winds up with the disk and they bring it right back to our end. Aggravating. Now we've iced it. We need to win this draw. Kalinski doesn't quite get it, but Backlund makes TWO phenomenal saves, point-blank and back to back. Highlight-reel material!

Oh, HOW is THAT icing vs. the Phantoms? For goodness sakes. Maroon was RIGHT there, and the bench and the fans vigorously disagree that the Bears reached the puck first. Ratsin' Fratsin' doggone icing. Back to our end we go. Again.

Now Ross and his line are getting the puck out, but we just can't seem to maintain possession in the Hershey end once we get there. This issue is cropping up no matter which line we have on the ice right now. 1:50 left in the game and we get a 3 on 1. Dang it, no dice. An insurance goal would have ben nice. Back to our end and Matsumoto blocks a shot. Then we get some chaos in our end and the bears pull the goalie. Come on, guys, 30 seconds left. YOu can do this! Oh, THANK GOODNESS. Boy, that was a hairy ending to the game, but the Phantoms hang on to pull off the win.

Looks like the SOG were tweaked for Hershey in the second period, as now the box score says the shots at the end of the second frame were Hershey 17, Phantoms 12. But we're still waiting to see the final shot tally, as well as the stars of the game. I think Backlund should be a star, for sure, because some of his saves as the game progressed definitely kept us in this game. Absolutely no doubt about it.

The Phantoms now have improved their record to 2-2. This game is a superb win, considering that we held on and prevented one of the best teams in the league, not to mention the Calder Cup champion team, from coming back to tie the game. Hershey threw everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at our net, and they were unable to get the equalizer. We can take a LOT of good things away from this victory.

But we can't revel in it too long, as we have our new regional rivals in town tomorrow night: the Albany River Rats will be in the GFCC.

The final SOG total was just announced during the postgame show: Hershey 27, Phantoms 15. Good job, Phantoms! Now exterminate some Rats tomorrow night!