SUNDAYS #9 vs. JAGUARS:

(vol. 35S, no. 9; newsletter by h.s.)
I was planning on turning over this Semifinals newsletter to #67 — the original intention being that he would give a unique perspective of the game since he was playing against us. Adding to the subtext was that #67 had a 2-point night, as he contributed directly to a pair of goals against his own team. Making the idea of #67 authoring this recap even more attractive was he was the party directly involved in the controversial “Throwing Gloves and Stick Into-the-Air in Disgust Incident” that followed Tim's famous blooper goal. (For those not in attendance, Tim's famous blooper shot was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel's back” as it gave us a 3-0 lead. Worse yet, it occurred when Ralz fired a shot from the point and had it deflected — by Brian — about 20 yards into the air before landing comfortably behind the Jags goalie in the net. At this point is when Brian threw his equipment in the air in disgust. And that, of course, is when the incident became controversial since #67 was told by his teammates that he shouldn't show up his own goalie like that.) But, in the immortal words of #67, I digress ...

The No.1-seeded Pirates faced the (distant) No.4-seeded Jags in this Playoff and the 1st period was all about the Jags hustling and the Pirates trying to find their rhythm. After 22:00 minutes, the Pirates had a slim 2-0 lead and it looked like we could be in for a long night. That's when the aforementioned blooper shot occurred and that was followed by a string of four more Pirate tallies. All-in-all, the Pirates had seven different scorers this evening (not counting Brian, which would make eight).
Highlights of the night included:
• Mike getting the night's first tally.
• A slam-dunk one-timer from Tony to Jay
• Russ getting his a goal (and assist) on his rebound
• And Ralz's mile-high goal and the controversial reaction by #67

But controversial incidents were just beginning on this night ...

After the game the electricity was still in the air as the Chiefs were getting ready to play the Cannibals in the other Semifinal. After our handshake, Tony “Evil Minion” Toscano skated through the Chiefs during warm-up and pulled their net down. This seemingly bizarre act was actually “payback” for what is refered to as “The Time The Chiefs Pulled Our Net Down During Our Warm-ups Because They Had to Forfeit a Game Where They Used an Under-30, Non-Rostered Player Who Later Scored the Game-Winning Goal in Overtime Incident.” Unfortunately, Tony's little act of revenge caused the Chief players to tell Tony that “Payback's a bitch.” Tony, wanting to set the record straight, said that his action was the payback. The Chiefs, however, did not seem to buy into this logic. Whether or not Tony should have brought-up the (unsubstantiated, but highly-charged) “Spitting in the Puck Bag Incident” is a matter of debate.

And so, as fate would have it, the Pirates head to the Finals vs. the Chiefs. Should be another fun Sunday at GoodSports!

FOR THE RECORD
Attendance (players): LeMatty, McLaughlin, Farkas, Nicolosi, Serkin, Gucci, DiPierro, Toscano, Hand, Farrell. Net: Harris.
Scratches: none.
Scoring: 1st period: 2-0 Pirates: Goals by Farrell (Toscano; Gucci (Farkas). 3rd period: 7-1 Pirates: Goals by Hand (none); LeMatty (Farrell); Serkin (Toscano, DiPierro); DiPierro (Serkin); Nicolosi (none).
date of game: 11.23.08