SUNDAYS #2 vs. ST. PATS:

(vol. 19S, no. 2; newsletter by k.r.)
The Coastal Pirates skated against the St. Pats last night and (with a little divine intervention) left with a 3-2 overtime victory. Once Kevin found his way to the bench, the squad was complete with two full lines. (editor's note: no doubt Kev will be paying his “tardy” fine in some Killian's Irish Red!) Joining him on the blueline was Keith, Russ and Scooby-Dooby-Do while up front was Scott Lematty, Chris G., Wildman, Ralz, Glenn Farkas and Dan DiPierro.

With one game played in the new format both teams seemed well-adjusted and ready for this game — except maybe for the goaltenders who, once again, were at the wrong ends. It would prove to be a close contest throughout the game with several even-up penalties being called. The St. Pats got on the board about halfway through the 1st period (on a scrum in the crease), but it didn't seem to rattle the Pirates; before long the game would be tied when Dan took a feed from Wildman and squeezed the puck in on the short, right side. Although both sides continued to trade chances, the score remained steady at 1-1 at the break.

The second half was played much like the first except there were a few more chances for both teams on offense. The Pirates actually found themselves on a 4:00-minute penalty kill halfway through the frame and managed to successfully get out of it without any damage being done. But, with roughly 4:00 minutes remaining, the St. Pats scored after a rebound was left sitting on the doorstep. Although that put the Pirates down 2-1, things were not as grim as they seemed. With 1:20 on the clock, the Pirates pulled their goalie for an extra skate; they then forced a face-off deep in the attacking zone with only :35 seconds remaining. Russ then used the time-out and he called the play: after taking the face-off, Russ would tie-up the center and allow Kevin to storm in and shoot the puck. It went something like that, except the puck ended-up bouncing to Keith (from a St. Pat) and Keith slapped it past the keeper, low to the right, to tie things up at the :31 second mark and force overtime.

With the momentum now with the Pirates, they were dominating the overtime. Like the game-tying goal, the winner was the result once again of an offensive zone face-off; this time, Scott LeMatty took the puck out of the face-off circle and spun and fired. Although the keeper made the initial save, Scott was able to lift the rebound over the keeper to keep the Pirates undefeated.