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WEDNESDAYS #4 vs. RHINOS:

(vol. 8W, no. 4; newsletter by b.n.)
If the Coastal Pirates fail to make the playoffs this season, then blame Roger. Why Roger you ask? Read the Newsletter & find out.

Our first "Tuesday" night game of the Wednesday night league began with us playing the Rhinos. (Well some of us were playing the Rhinos -- there were a number of players -- Russ & Dave & of course BB -- who were still getting dressed). Those of us on the floor tried to delay the start of the game as much as possible, but we were finally dragged to the faceoff circle for the drop of the puck. Considering that we started the game shorthanded, we did OK (no penalty was called -- that was all the players that were ready to play when the puck was dropped). We were able to keep play in the Rhinos end and put up some good chances in the 1st, but came out of the period with the scored tied at 0-0.

In the 2nd, the chances continued and the Pirates jumped on the board when #67 grabbed a loose puck and fired a shot high on the goalie from in front of our own bench. The puck deflected high into the air and the goalie dropped down looking to block the rebound. The puck ended-up on the opposite side of the crease where BB, with the utmost calm, grabbed the puck out of the air, dropped it to his stick and fired it into the empty net. Meanwhile at the other end of the rink, Harris was making a number of great saves, I lost count of how many breakaways he turned aside, but throughout the night he was on. The 2nd Period ended with the score 1-0.

Something happened in the 3rd, maybe it was the fact that we were tired, or perhaps we just weren't used to playing on Tuesday night, whatever the problem, we all know that in the end it comes down to being Roger's fault. In a span of a few moments, we went from a 1-0 lead to being down 2-1. The first goal was scored when a Rhino got the puck behind our own net & fed his own player in front who nailed the puck into the net (the initial save was me off the blocker, but the rebound was put in). The second goal was almost the identical play, except instead of the Rhino player making the feed from behind the net, it was Roger who fed the Rhino in front of the net who was able to notch up the score. Fortunately we were able to regroup at that point and Harris continued to make great saves to keep us in the game. With a late penalty on Dave (we were the subject of some questionable calls all night, but according to Dave, this one was legit) -- we found ourselves down one man with time running out. We kept the pressure up and it was BB once again who grabbed a Rhino clearing pass & scored with a wrister from the blueline. That wasn't the end of the excitement, on the ensuing faceoff, Russ was called for "obstruction" as he tied-up the Rhino after the puck was dropped. So with about :30 seconds left on Dave's penalty, we had to kill off a 5-3 to preserve the tie. Ironically, we had four skaters on the floor to start the game and four skaters to finish it.