WEDNESDAYS #9 vs. JAGUARS:

(vol. 15W, no. 9; newsletter by k.r.)
Another Pirates-Jags Playoff game and another one goal — late in the game — heartbreaking loss for the Pirates. The only difference in this outing was the total domination the Pirates showed to their opponents; if only the
result was different.

The only scoring in the 1st period was a fluke goal that took an awkward bounce off of Harris' stick and in. The Pirates had a lot of pressure, but could not crack the Jags' keeper.

Our spirits were high, however, going into the 2nd period. It was the Pirates who scored first in the middle of the 2nd to knot things up 1-1. Chris G. fed the puck out of the corner to Keith at the left point, who found Russ at the right of the crease for the game-tying goal. It stayed tied for a while and the momentum really began to swing to us. Then, with :50 seconds remaining in the 2nd period, the tie was broken by the Jags, and they headed into the final break holding a narrow 2-1 lead. What we didn't know was that this was a foreshadowing of things to come.

Even though late in the 3rd Kevin smoked a shot from the point to once-again knot things up, the Jags always seem able to hang on and then score in the final seconds against us. True to form this was the case on this night as well. It's painful to lose this way as we seem to do against these guys all the time. The worst, however, was to control a game (estimated shots-on-goal 40-15) and still come up on the losing end. Lets hope that this time the lesson is learned: Play the whole game!