SUNDAYS #1 vs. ROLAND'S:

(vol. 11S, no. 1; newsletter by c.g.)
Good Grief! Do you remember that Charlie Brown skit where Lucy is gonna hold the ball while an unsuspecting Charlie Brown runs up to kick it? Then just as he is about to really boom one, she pulls it away and Charlie Brown falls flat on his back while Lucy snickers. Well, Sunday the Pirates played Charlie Brown and (with the help of his new teammates) #67 played Lucy. Don't get me wrong, Lucy played well — only it was for the opposing team. I seem to remember him also playing well against us for the Gerrys. Hmmm ...

The 1st period started out strongly for us as we were able to keep the puck in the attacking zone for a good portion of the 15:00 minutes. We had some good opportunities, however, it seemed Doug Collimore had come to play and turned aside each Pirate shot. It's never good when you can control play and come away with no points, but that's exactly what happened as the “No Name Team” (a.k.a. “Roland's Team”) charged down the ice and scored midway through the 1st, negating all our good effort.

The 2nd period is kind of a blur to me, but I do remember getting into a shoving match with Collimore resulting in a penalty on him. Essentially I skated for the net as the puck had gone behind it. One of his defensemen decides to push me into the goalie, and at the same time the defenseman's stick was hooked around me and hit Collimore in the face; naturally he thinks I did all this on purpose, and takes a shove at me. Me (being the quiet sort), yells back at him, and shoves him back — at which point the refs separated us, and gave them the penalty. Also it was somewhere within that 2nd period Lucy scored his first goal of the night. And if I am recalling correctly, Russ also scored a goal (assist to Scott LeMatty and Scooby), to end the period 2-1.

The 3rd was the same as the first two with the “No Name Team” getting to the loose pucks, and making the most of their opportunities, while the Pirates stalled. That traitor Lucy again scored (an emptynetter, no less) to give him two goals on the night, and seal 4-1 the victory for his team. Of course no Pirate game would be complete without the obligatory meeting in the parking lot afterwards, and of course Lucy joined us to relive his heroics from that evening — complete with his pronouncement that “It's so weird because I can't remember the last time I scored for the Pirates ...” Hmmm ...