SUNDAYS #7 vs. RAT PACK:

(vol. 32S, no. 7; newsletter by h.s.)
For our one foray into the “A”-division this season, we drew the shortest of straws — the No.1-ranked Rat Pack, points leader in the top bracket. Sporting the highest point-per-game and the lowest goals against, our outing against the Rat Pat looked to have the making of another fun Sunday evening.

Right after warm-ups I had the following exchange with Scott LeMatty. It's what we call a real confidence builder.
Scott: Watch out they have some good shooters.
Me: Which guys?
Scott: All of them.

So with that Herb Brooks pep talk the Pirates took to the ice. 21:40 seconds later the game was amazingly still knotted at 0-0. In those remaining :20 seconds, however, the Rat Pack found the twine on a slam dunk rebound to finally take the 1-0 lead.

The Pirates were not rolling over quite yet though. During the final period, Russ won a face-off back to Craig Grinberg and then provided a screen for his big shot. Next thing the Men In White had tied things up 1-1. During a scramble behind our net, the Rat Pack regained the lead on a nice one-timer at the 15:00-minute mark. That narrow 2-1 lead would hold for nearly the whole period. Then, with less than 2:00 minutes left, the Pirates caught what appeared to be a huge break — a powerplay opportunity. Unfortunately, as we tried to work the puck around the Rat Pack zone with the man advantage, a Pirate who shall remained unnamed (J.C.) bobbled the puck which lead to a Rat Pack breakaway and shorthanded goal. An emptynetter a short time later made the final score not reflect the actual battle, which was a strong defensive outing for our squad.
date of game: 2.17.08