(vol.
23S, no. 4; newsletter by b.n.)
It used to be that the Red Stars would lay a spankin' on the Coastal Pirates. But then again, it used to be that Harris was a single man. (Well, to everyone other than Chris that is. According to Chris, the Clan of Goione does not recognize the Siegel marriage, but that, as they say, is the subject for another newsletter). So in this New World Order where Harris wears a ring on his left hand (engraved with crossed hockey sticks if you can believe it), one can never draw upon the past to predict the future. “That is why you play the game” or so they say.
Speaking of what they say: I ran into Nadine the other day and it turns out that even she went to Harris' bachelor party (or the “spontaneous get-together” as Gucci likes to call it). For those of you that are unfamiliar with Nadine, Harris assures me that our text search for past newsletters will be up soon; until then you can just to the “History” link and search the old-fashioned way by clicking on the 22 volumes worth of archived newsletters. And speaking of Nadine: she, more than anyone could tell you the history that the Pirates have had with the Red Stars through the years. But since I'm still mad about not being invited to the bachelor party, I won't mention what Nadine had to say about the Red Stars.
The Pirates stepped-on to the ice sporting Russ, LeMatty, Wildman, Tim, Chris and Farkas on offense (not all at once obviously, but I can't remember who started so I figured that I would just mention everyone). On defense it was Roger and #67 starting on the floor with Keith starting from an extremely relaxed position (that would be the bench). Oddly enough, unlike earlier games against the Red Stars, it was the Pirates who would draw first blood when LeMatty took advantage of a wandering John Arena and fed the puck to Keith who smacked it into the open net. LeMatty would pick up his own score later in the period off a feed from Russ on a remarkably-similar John Arena play. The Red Stars on the other hand, managed to score a pair of goals of their own in the 1st period (including a shorthanded tally), so at the break it was all tied at 2-2.
It wasn't until the 7:00 minutes remaining mark in the final period when the Pirates would go on their second powerplay of the night; at that point someone on the Pirate bench said, “I hope they don't get another powerplay goal.” I was quick to point out that since we were on the powerplay, if the Red Stars scored it would be a shorthanded goal, not a powerplay goal; the answer I got (and I am not making this up) was, “That's what I said, if they score while we are on the powerplay.” Well, that little conversation obviously put the old hex on the team. And as sure as Harris had a bachelor party, the Red Stars recorded their second powerplay (er, shorthanded) goal of the night. Anyway that pretty much looked like it was it for the Pirates as they couldn't seem to find the back of the net for the entire 3rd period. Uncharacteristically however, Referee Dave Kurasz seemed to take it easy on the Pirates: First, it was Roger who was whistled for firing a puck on net after the whistle with just under a 1:00 minute remaining — instead of sending Roger to the box for 2:00 minutes and putting the Red Stars on the powerplay, Dave flagged him for a 10:00 minute “unsportsmanlike” game misconduct, which doesn't give the opposition a man advantage. After that, it looked like the Red Stars would hit an empty net after Harris went to the bench for the extra skater, but the shot hit the left post dead center and stopped — shortly after that, Dave was once-again generous when #67 tripped-up one of the Red Stars in the corner, but (with only seconds to go) Dave decided to let it go as the game was just about to end anyway ... or was it? Miraculously, someone moved the puck out of the zone and the puck ended-up on the stick of LeMatty, who picked up his third assist of the night when he fed the puck to Farkas who dove forward and pushed the past John Arena for score with only 3.8 seconds remaining.
If the game ended right there, we would have all been happy. Of course as everyone knows it didn't end there. Well, I should say everyone other than Keith. Because as everyone else skated to the bench for a short rest Keith skated to center ice to shake hands. (As Keith tells story, “I was pissed that none of those motherf&*!ers were coming out to shake hands. Then I noticed that all the Pirates weren't shaking hands either ... that's when I realized that they have overtime during the regular season.”) Anyway, the Pirates fought hard in the overtime, but one of the Red Stars was able to fire off the perfect shot from the left face-off circle through a screen that caught the upper corner on the far side of the net with :43 remaining in the 3:00 minute overtime. Oh well, there are good ties and bad ties. You could probably chalk this one up as a good “overtime loss” ... if there is such a thing.
Oh and one more thing, when I last talked to Nadine she sent along the picture below from Harris' “get-together.”
date of game: 10.16.05
