SUNDAYS #1 vs. DIRE WOLVES:

(vol. 21S, no. 1; newsletter by c.g.)
The Coastal Pirates opened their new Wednesday season with a whopping six players on a wildly-shortened bench. Harris can probably fill you in on how that came about, but the six Pirates that saw the ice for the bulk of the 44:00 minutes last week were #19, Russ, Keith, Farkas, LeMatty and Jimmy — if you take Jimmy out of the equation (who was subbing from the Wednesday team) then we only had five “Sunday” skaters on hand.

Harris provided a strong showing in net early on, which allowed us to get a jump on the Dire Wolves. Keith got us on the board first when he one-timed a nice pass from Farkas in front. Russ and LeMatty would add tallies of their own during the 1st period, propelling us out to a comfortable 3-1 lead at the halfway mark. Russ and Keith played ironman hockey on defense, and Harris stopped anything that got by them. It was a strong effort considering the lack of subs, and the only real concern was could the Pirates keep it up in the final 22:00 minutes against a fresher Wolves team.

That question didn't take too long to answer as Russ added his second of the night and Jimmy put in a pair himself. Harris had to make some tougher saves as a few more rushes got through than they had earlier, but he was up to the task and turned away all advances. All-in-all a strong showing for the Pirates as strong positional play thwarted a lot of chances by the opposition. Things got a little chippy late, but overall it was a solid game by all. Now comes a two-week layoff, before the season really gets going.
date of game: 3.13.05