SUNDAYS #5 vs. BLIZZARD:

(vol. 11S, no. 5; newsletter by c.g.)
“The Hockey Gods were angry that day, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli.” (Anyone know where that line comes from? Hint replace “Hockey Gods” with “Sea.”) What was left was an unimaginable melee of missed opportunities, bad breaks, and general on-ice ugliness. All this on a night that was supposed to be filled with festivities as the Pirates held their first-ever, post-game-cookout/meeting (a.k.a. “The Pirate Feast”). As you would expect the entire Sunday night Pirate crew was on-hand except for Ralz, who had a meeting across the river to watch the Boss sing “The Rising” for the umpteenth billion time. Or maybe he was just sick; conspiracy theorists will argue that one for a long time to come, but back to the game at hand ...

The Pirates were sleepwalking through the 1st period allowing the Blizzard to take a commanding lead at the first intermission. The first Blizzard goal was a simple result of miscommunication, as Harris ventured from his cage to play a loose puck, and ended-up leaving it for Scooby, who thought Harris was gonna play it, and well you get the drift ... it was 1-0 Blizzard. The bad breaks continued as a Blizzard slapshot deflected off the shaft of Chris' stick enough to handcuff Harris and give the Blizzard a 2-0 lead. As if that much misfortune weren't enough, the Blizzard would get another fluky goal later when a puck bounced-off of Scooby's skate on a centering pass to put the Pirates down by three goals at the end of the 1st.

Things started to look up in the 2nd when the Pirates awoke from their daze and started to apply some heat. Scott “The Bull” LeMatty was first on the board when he took a pass from Mike Farrell and beat the goalie from a sharp angle to make it 3-1. During the period the Pirates had a wealth of opportunities, only to be foiled by some bad bounces; there were at least two posts hit (with at least two more by game's end). Both Scott LeMatty and Wildman fed Chris with passes that should easily have been tipped-in, but instead sailed wide. Mike Farrell would get on the scoresheet a second time when the defenseman registered his first-ever Pirate goal (on a pass from Wildman) with less than a 1:00 minute remaining in the 2nd period, putting us within one goal of the Blizzard.

The 3rd period was one the Pirates would probably just as soon forget, as the penalties started to accumulate. Several fight broke out and, when the dust had settled, the Pirates were left with Jimmy, our leading goal and points scorer, having to serve a two-game Sunday night suspension. Oh yeah, and somewhere along the way the Blizzard scored an insurance goal to hand the Pirates their first loss since the season opener.