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SUNDAY'S GAME #8 vs. BLIZZARD:

(vol. 8S, no. 8; newsletter by j.c.)
What happened last night?
What a game it was. A back and forth event, many shots, blocked shots, combined with standing on your head goal tending. Roger passed to Wildman, he shoots, he scores... Dave Matthews passes to Tami, she shoots, she scores! Final score 10-9.

Wait a minute, that was the Foosball game at Scott Miller's Party. And what a Party it was. A Mardi Gras theme with awesome home cooked Creole and Cajun food, good music, many beers, many shots, and eight-ball and foosball. Much fun was had by all. Maybe too much fun ... Which leads us into the game, slightly hung over and definitely tired..... Many yawns were heard in the locker room, but the Pirates did manage to shake it off (minus one player) and play one of the most exciting battles (from a spectator's vantage) we have had in a while. I wish I could remember more of it, but we were skating around like mad-men... It sounds like a repeat script, but heavy early pressure from the Pirates found us in the Blizzard zone for long stretches, but we did not cash in.

The Blizzards Blew (or is it Blizzards blow?) into our zone and scored to take a 1-0 lead. We answered right back with lots of pressure from Scott LeMatty and Dave Matthews, and later a Wildman shot bounced off the goalie, and Glen Farkas grabbed the rebound and ripped the twine, 1-1. Pirates continued the hard work and offensive pressure. The team forced many face-offs in the offensive zone. Ralz facing off on the right circle got the puck and drilled a shot that deflected off the goalie and wrapped around the boards to the left side. Wildman grabbed the loose puck and fired it into the open net, 2-1. Later Ralz added to the lead firing a wrist shot just inside the blueline beating the goalie clean. Things looked pretty good at that point. Probably too good, as the Pirates got a little hungry for more goals, we began to gap a little too much (say red line) leading to turnovers out of our defensive zone. The Blizzard capitalized and in between Pirate breakaways and offensive pressure, they chipped away and then tied us 3-3.

With 4:14 remaining the Blizzard capsized the Pirate Ship, 4-3. We really made a lot of nice plays, and everyone was contributing to the offensive chances all game. The last 4:00 minutes saw 2:00 minutes of heavy pressure, the last 2:00 minutes we drew two penalties and pulled the goalie, we rang the post at least two times, had two or three face-offs off goalie saves, but we did not get the tying goal. A close game, a heart breaker to lose -- we'll get them in the playoffs (if they make it). We did well in spite of the fact that many of our Marquee players missed the game when our jet developed engine trouble and was stranded in Salt Lake City.