SUNDAYS #3 vs. TEAM MICRO:

(vol. 16S, no. 3; newsletter by k.r.)
Oh the nerve of Minerva, throwing Chris G. out of the game and suspending him for the next game! All for letting him know that he was pulled down and in pain behind the Micro net while they were on an odd-man rush (which led to a goal). We've never seen a game suspension for a fight, but obviously yelling at the ref warrants one — it's nice to have your priorities in order. That's enough of the editorializing, now onto the game.
(editor's note: after a conference with Russ on Monday, league director Scott Baldwin has overturned the suspension to Chris — he will now be eiligible to play in Sunday's game)

Even with the call on Chris and some others we thought were overlooked, the fact is we were outplayed by a better team — but not that much better of a team. They had their one scorer who netted four of their six goals (one of the ones he didn't score was the emptynetter), but Micro wasn't able to sustain any consistent pressure in the Pirates' zone. The territory war went to the Pirates, but the score to Micro.

The game started with the Pirates dressing eight skaters. Up front was Russ, Ralz, Dan DiPierro, Scott LeMatty, Glenn Farkas, and the league-leading penalty man Chris G. The blueline was manned by Keith and Kevin, but Russ dropped back halfway through the 1st after Wildman finally showed (that'll be a 3-beer fine, Wildman). The game was played much the same way for all three periods; although the Pirates were able to sustain offensive pressure, we weren't able to crack the Micro goalie on his return after a three-week layoff due to a groin pull he suffered in the Finals. The Micro, on the other hand, seemed to only get in to our zone and get one shot off and leave — the only problem was that their sniper hit the net four times in the first two periods. If not for Harris standing on his head (a great glove save in the 3rd comes to mind), the score could have been worse. The biggest difference moving to the “A” Division is the speed. We seem to be a step slower, which would explain why the opposition seems to score on rushes and not on set plays.

The Pirates would not get on the board until the 3rd period when Scott LeMatty took a clearing-pass-gone-bad and took a low, hard shot that Wildman was able to deflect into the upper right-hand corner. Kevin would then make it 5-2 on a blast from the top of the left circle. A hot goalie and a sniper made this game seem further out of reach than it was. It was a frustrating night, but a little more jump in our legs and this would have been a different game. Now lets hope the “Gods of GoodSports” figure out that calling a ref a “d---head” is not as serious as dropping the gloves and pounding an opponent.

p.s. #67 #67 #67 #67