(vol.
26S, no. 4; newsletter by h.s.)
What's worse than playing hockey in 100° weather? Playing hockey in 100° weather against a team that has no goalie.
That was nearly the scenario for Sunday when the Jags arrived sans a netminder. Fortunately newly-appointed league director Brian Schlueter saved-the-day by donning the spare gear for the Jags; this also served the purpose to give the Pirates an opportunity to take some shots (literally) at Brian for the July 3 scheduling fiasco.
The Pirates had a full crew as Scooby (back from a sickness that sidelined him on Wednesday) bolstered the defensive corps by subbing. Scooby was part of the defensive trio of Gucci and Wildman, as Kevin was “stuck in traffic” at a bar stool somewhere in Point Pleasant.
Russ didn't take long to welcome our new league director to the floor as he wristed in a goal :40 seconds in for the 1-0 lead; on the play, Scooby bounced a pass of the boards that hit LeMatty perfectly who then shuffled it off to Russ in front. After that quick goal, however, Brian steadied himself and played solidly in net. The only other tally of the 1st period came more than 10:00 minutes later — again by Russ. Shortly after Russ' second goal of the game, the rink suffered a wardrobe malfunction and Ref Dave Kurasz had to perform a Mr. Fixit on the endboards. By the time the game resumed, Kevin was in attendance and the Men In Black had two full lines.
The final 22:00 minutes — which seemed to last about two days in this heat — went even better for the Pirates as they were able to cycle the puck effectively. Kevin, Brooks and Gucci would set up a triangle and pass the puck around the horn before getting it to Glenn Farkas in the middle for the one-timer. Next, Russ would strike again (assist to LeMatty) for his team-leading fifteenth career hattrick — an especially-impressive feat considering he was carried-off the rink during the last game after he collapsed as a result of a stick to the head. Not to be left out, Gucci (who about 2:00 minutes earlier had said that we don't use games like this to inflate our stats) scored the fifth Pirate goal of the evening, giving him a comfortable lead amongst defensemen. With time running out and the shutout bid seemingly inevitable, Kevin decided to do his impression of a Colombian soccer player and shoot on our own net (Kevin denies this by the way); the puck barely went wide, but then careened off the endboards onto the blade of a surprised Jag player who fortunately couldn't finish.
And so the Pirates were able to blank the Jags again in our second meeting of the Summer season. In the two outings, the Pirates have outscored their rivals 13-0.
date of game: 7.16.06
The Coastal Pirates racecar as driven by Mike Farrell finished 3rd (or as Russ would say “Show”) at Summit Point after qualifying 4th. (Those of you with especially good vision can see that Mike still refuses to accept he is No.23 and Jimmy Ferraro is rightfully No.21.)
