SUNDAYS #4 vs. A-MINUS:

(vol. 17S, no. 4; newsletter by b.n.)
Another Sunday, another “A” team. And just like the last time we faced an “A” opponent on Sunday night, there was a surprising number of no-shows for the Pirates. But we won't delve into that, because there has been a special website to track the movements of these scalawags. You can visit it at
www.coastalpirates.com
/theseguysareassholes.html

Our opponents for the night was the team that calls themselves A- (pronounced “A minus,” not “A dash”). According to their team historian, they took the name A- to reflect the fact that they feel they are better then the teams in the “B” Division, but not up to the level of play of the “A” teams (I'm not making this up by the way, I heard it from an extremely reliable source). By the way, before I go any farther, is it my fault that I know why people go the the nests of Canadian Geese and shake the eggs and then put them back in the nest? I can't help it. I try to forget things like that, but I can't. Where was I? Oh yeah, the game. For whatever reason (re: goaltending), the A- were able to jump out to 3-0 lead in the 1st period. Apparently, Harris was playing so badly that Bob (on A-) took it upon himself to track Harris down after the game and tell him how far out of position he was when he scored his goal. But enough ragging on Harris. After blowing out the team last week 12-3, it's not surprising that the Pirates needed a little time to gear up to the higher level of play. After spotting A- the lead, the Pirates settled-down and started concentrating on their comeback.

As the 2nd period began (and still trailing by a trio of goals), the Keith was able to hookup with Kevin on a nice play before Kevin blasted the puck past Steve Carr to put the Pirates on the board. Not surprisingly, the game started to get a little chippy in the 2nd, as it became obvious that the Pirates weren't going to roll over and let the A- roll all over them. In all my years playing in the league — with the Pirates, to stints on the Geriatrics and Zombies — I have never seen a ref call a “dive”; but when Russ gave #23 a push in the back with both hands, the A- player made such a blatant delayed-reaction, swan dive that the refs had to blow the whistle. Then, to make matters worse, the guy got up and argued about it. The 2nd ended with the score 3-1.

As the 3rd got going, the A- put a little kink in the Pirates comeback plan when they outnumbered us down low and where able to fire a puck that rolled up Harris' arm and into the net. But once again, the Pirates didn't despair. Kudos go to Harris later in the period when #23 on the A- was called for an obstruction penalty and, according to Harris, it was his third penalty of the game so he should have been kicked out of the game; the way he reacted to this news, you would have thought he was Russ' cousin or something. He was yelling and screaming, and had to be escorted from the rink; finally after about :45 seconds of time had run off, the refs finally stopped the clock in order to remove the guy from the rink. As time was running out in the 3rd period, it started to look like the A- were correct in there bold belief that they were better then all the “B” teams ... but then Scotty LeMatty picked-up a puck and buried it to put the Pirates within two goals again. With 1:00 minute remaining in the game, Harris called himself to the bench and gave the Pirates the extra skater and then with just :06.6 seconds to go, Kevin buried his second goal of the game to pull the Pirates within one, 4-3. Unbelievably, the the puck somehow found the back of the net just before the final horn sounded — unfortunately though, the puck ended up in our net to give the A- the emptynetter and the 5-3 victory.