WEDNESDAYS #3 vs. DUCKS:

(vol. 29W, no. 3; newsletter by brooks)
Sometimes in hockey, you can have all the talent in the world and still not win. You need to mesh, to blend as a team, to support each other and to encourage your teammates. Other times you just get lucky and have a grand time no matter what the outcome is. Don't get me wrong: Winning is the best, but it is not everything. That said, we took the ice to play the Mighty Ducks (or the Anaheim Ducks or the Ducks of GoodSports, or whatever they are). We started with the newly-formed “Millerman” line (The Miller Bros. and Wildman) and the “Diver Down” line (Brooks, Craig and the always-diving #67) up front. On the blueline we had Joe “I score on either net” Baio coupled with “The Fridge” (aka Gucci), and Mike “The Rocket” Farrell with “Dump and Chase” Dave.

This is how it went down: The “Millerman” line got us started when Wildman (assist Scott) made it 1-0. That was followed by Baio (assist Brooks) from the point, to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead. We had a lapse in offensive backchecking and the Ducks scored to make it 2-1. That would be the last time the Ducks found the twine in the 1st period though, as “The Fridge” scored next (assists Wildman and Scott) followed by Scott scoring his first of the young season (assist Evan). We'd take that 4-1 lead into the break.

The final 22:00-minutes was more of the same and then some. The laundry list of goals looked like this: Baio (assist Brooks), Gucci (assist Brooks), Farrell (assist Baio), Craig (assist Brooks), and finally Evan (assist wildman). The five-goal period — all scored by different Pirates — was our biggest show of offensive strength so far. The Pirates now average 7.33 goals-per-game. One of the period's highlights was when Baio, so hungry to get the hattrick, was blinded by “The Fridge” (who was opening his door to get a cold one); As a result, Joe temporarily forgot which net to shoot on and slammed home a goal on our own net and a stunned Doug Collimore. (It was actually more of a deflection but in the spirit of #67's newsletters, I took some poetic license with that one.) The goal of the night, however, came from Mike Farrell when he took the feed from Baio and fired a “rocket” (hence the nickname) for the score. Actually, after Mike took the shot we all went to Applebees and made it back in time to watch it enter the net. “You got all of that one,” I told him. A good win and a great start to the season.
date of game: 3.28.07