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Iron Man	Game Streak
D. Turner	37
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	Mutch has played 450 career games! M. Sager has played 400 career games! Mandell has amassed 200 career points!

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After extensive contract negotiations, the Mighty Pirates organization is extremely pleased to welcome back Howie for another season of insightful, amusing, and extremely addictive commentary! Yes, Howie tells it like it is!

You'll find links to each and every Howie Report right here after each game.

Pirate Brand Hockey Rules the Ice (for 23 Minutes and 40 Seconds)
2004-10-04: Mighty Pirates 1 at Buzzards 4

The Mighty Pirates faced a formidable foe in the Buzzards as they took the ice on Monday night, October 4, in brand-spanking-new RINX 3 — complete with big locker rooms (with locks that work!), great lighting and good ice. The Buzzards are young in age, fast on skates and quick to use their sticks and bodies, and it took every ounce of effort that the Pirates (who are young at heart, fast with their wits and quick to jump to each other’s aid) could muster to keep up with them. Yet, going into the third period, the Pirates were in fact sporting a classic Pirate Brand Hockey® lead of 1-0, and had managed to frustrate Buzzard attack after attack with strong forechecking, solid defense and an impenetrable goalie.

But I get ahead of myself. The boys gathered, albeit a bit muddled and a bit late, before the game in their new environment, and found themselves with 13 skaters and one active cheerleader in the person of Kevin Hoekman, the Summer Pirate all-time goal leader and winter Pirate at heart. With only Kwinter and Dimock out of the line-up, both nursing sore knees, Captain Vito went with the usual three full lines and two pairs of wingers. The lines were anchored by centres John Mutch, Jonathan Gallivan and Jim Jezioranski, and the winger pairs were Mark Sager with Auby Mandell, Dave Turner with Nick Perri, and Vito Mola with Shaun Leggett. Defensive pairs were Pirate new-comer Jim Butler with Richard Bingham, and Todd Kitchen with Les Klein.

Now, normally a game that goes into the third period with a 1-0 score is as difficult to explain to a non-hockey fan as a pitcher’s duel is to explain to a non-baseball fan, But this game had every bit of the subtlety, finesse and beauty of a Pedro Martinez-Mike Mussina face-off. The flow of the game was pure Pirate Brand Hockey®, with:

smooth line changes,
solid defense in the Pirate end anchored by end-to-end skating defense and a Johnny-on-the-spot center who was always back as the third man,
wingers covering their point men,
forwards waiting until the defense controlled the puck before taking off down the wings or the centre with the puck stuck to their tape like glue, as a result of vmasterful clearing passes,
and an agile and alert Matthew Lella in between the pipes making like an impenetrable wall.

But take nothing away from the Buzzards. Their defense was also solid, and their goalie also masterful. However, with 4:12 left in the third period, the Pirates put on an outstanding display of puck cycling in the Buzzards’ end, with Mola and Leggett moving the puck around to Kitchen at the point, who let loose a booming shot at a surprised and undressed pipeminder.

In addition, there was a fair amount of extra-curricular activity on the ice, with stick and body work on the part of the Buzzards getting the goat of more than one normally cool-headed Pirate. Alas, here too the Buzzards showed themselves more skilled in the art of surreptitious aggression, and it was the Pirates who were called for most of the transgressions (Bingham and Leggett in the first period and Sager and Perri in the second — the last of which was part of a two-sided penalty to both the Pirates and Buzzards).

In the third period, the Buzzards finally broke through, as the Pirates began to abandon the aggressive side of Pirate Brand Hockey® and started to play — in the eyes of this reporter — a brand of too-defensive hockey. Falling back on their heels a bit too much in an attempt to protect the one goal lead, the Buzzards were able to penetrate just a bit further into the Pirate zone and take shots that were a bit more pin-point. As a result, they were able to pot two quick goals early in the third period just 22 seconds apart that took some of the wind out of the Pirates’ skull-and-crossbones sails. They did recover from the sudden change of fortunes, but another goal with 1:30 remaining and an empty net goal at the 0:48 mark sealed the game at 1-4 for the bad guys.

Nonetheless, the Pirates felt — again — that this was a game that could have gone either way, and with more time on the ice together, this team could give the Buzzards a run for their money the next time out. The team was also much heartened by the play of newly minted defenseman Jim Butler — another recruit from the WSIB Pirate farm system. Some were heard to remark that the Pirates now have the hope of having two Blair Dimocks on the ice, as Pirate medical staff have cleared both Kwinter and Dimock to skate with the team in their upcoming game on Monday, October 18 against the A.K. Wheezers at 10:00 p.m. in beautiful RINX 3.

I suggest you make a point of being there. The Pirates and Wheezers are rivals from years past, before the Wheezers moved themselves to another night with TNHC. But they are back, and — like the Pirates — sport both new faces and old. It promises to be hockey of the highest caliber, and will certainly fill the void that the NHL has left in your lives.