SUNDAYS #1 vs. ZOMBIES:

(vol. 10S, no. 1; newsletter by c.g.)
The new GoodSports mini-season, kicked-off Sunday Night when the Coastal Pirates faced-off against the Zombies. The Zombies had a "beefed-up" roster (several Blackhawk and Stars players), but the Pirates had a few additions of their own including Brian "Nukem" Newcomb and blueliner Keith Richardson (returning for his second night in as many games).

The 1st period was a hard-fought battle as both sides traded opportunities while coming up short. Russ-Farkas-LeMatty started things out up front and forced some good pressure, but couldn't put the puck away. The defense (and especially Harris) was stingy — not allowing several pointblank Zombie shots to find the twine. On one play Richardson knocked a sure goal out of the air that had glanced-off Harris to preserve the 0-0 score, and another time Dave Matthews banged a puck out of the zone after it had fallen precariously on the goal line.

The 2nd period saw the Pirates come out a little flatter as the Zombies started to control the play. After two quick goals by the Zombies things were not looking particularly good until Scott LeMatty took a pass from Richardson and pulled-off one of his signature deke moves to draw the Pirates within one again.

With the score 2-1 at the beginning of the 3rd, the Pirates had regained some life. It would be short-lived, however, as the the Zombies would notch two more to take a commanding 4-1 lead. With under 5:00 minutes remaining, Wildman banged home a pass from LeMatty to make it a 4-2 game. Then (after a Pirate time-out) Russ decided to pull Harris on the next offensive-zone play. At 4:29 the Pirates put on the extra attacker and began to pressure consistently. Glenn Farkas drove home a rebound in front (assist to Wildman and Richardson) with :24 seconds remaining. Just :13 seconds later Farkas would do it again (assist to LeMatty and Russ) to cap an unbelievable comeback against a quality (for this night at least) adversary.