(vol.
30S, no. 10; newsletter by brooks)
You play all season for the right to get to the Playoffs and then you work even harder for the right to call yourself a champion. On September 16, 2007 we had a chance to not only call ourselves champions, but to be the best for a third straight season — an accomplishment never attained by any Pirates team. The No.2-ranked Chiefs would be gunning to prevent just that scenario.
We had nine on the Pirate bench for this Title game with the forward lines of Tim-Russ-Farkas and DiPierro-Brooks-Tony; with Mike vacationing in Virginia, the Men In White had a three-man rotation on the blueline of Gucci (subbing for an injured Murf), LeMatty, and Kevin.
The first shift of the 1st period featured a quick score from Dan (assist Brooks) at the :32-second mark — kudos to Tony on his nice footwork to avoid the “goalie interference” call. Although the lightning-fast Pirate goal seemed a good omen, the Chiefs tallied the next two including a powerplay goal. The Chiefs were looking more at home on the slick floor, while the Pirates were having difficulty getting their footing on both sides of the blueline. Once we found our game though, it didn't take long for us to get the wind back in our sails. We stormed back with five unanswered goals by four different Pirates to put us securely in the lead at the buzzer: Tim (assist Russ), Brooks (assist Tony), Tony (assist Kevin), Russ (assist Tim), and Tony (assist Brooks). Tony's final goal came so late in the 1st period that rattled Chiefs used their lone timeout with only :13 seconds remaining on the clock — which caused a bit of a dispute among Chief teammates on the bench.
With the 6-2 lead going in the final 22:00 minutes, the Pirates now controlled the game. Although the scoring spree stopped, we used the clock to our advantage and kept the surging Chiefs from staging a comeback. In the final frame, the Chiefs would get their second powerplay goal of the night; although this closed the gap to three goals, a score by Brooks (assist Tony) gave us back our cushion on the following shift. The Chiefs tried to use the momentum on their following goal, but even though they outscored us 3-2 in the period the clock was against them. Fittingly, Tony (assist Brooks) finished his hattrick for the final Pirate score of the night.
When it was all said and done, we had an 8-5 win and our third straight Championship — and the second consecutive one against the Chiefs. I would like to take a moment to thank all my teammates for giving me the chance to be part of this great team and for our continued success in the future — is there a fourth Title in-a-row awaiting us? Congrats to all Pirates!
date of game: 9.16.07
THREE-PEAT™ FOR THE PIRATES
You may have noticed that there's a trademark emblem next to three-peat — that's because NBA coach Pat Riley owns the trademark (seriously). Potential lawsuits aside, the Pirates win was their third consecutive Sunday Championship ... and the largest trophy to date.
