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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.

The Howie Report
2005-01-17: Mighty Pirates 5 at Original Chiefs 1

Last Monday night at RINX 2 was a strange one from the beginning: A freezing cold night – the coldest of the year so far – and RINX could not get the ice to freeze, and had to resort to a scrape that left in place deep gouges across the ice surface ("like skating on a pond," quipped the ever-positive Shaun Leggett, or was it native Nova Scotian John Mutch?). The door to Locker Room #6 assigned to the Mighty Pirates would not close, and the team rep had to resort to unauthorized use of a hockey stick to get the lock to engage – and a similar tactic to open it again after the game. And strangest of all, at the beginning of the third period, Todd Kitchen, rookie Mighty Pirates (and 2004 Summer Pirate Rookie of the Year) was informed by the refs that he had been accused by the Original Chiefs of being a ringer, and that his identity would have to be verified by TNHC!

Well, the Mighty Pirates certainly know who Todd is, and now so do the Chiefs, as he chalked up three more points (two goals and an assist) in the best game that the Pirates have played as a team so far this season. They knew that they would have to step it up a notch or two against the first place Chiefs, who also had a game in hand against the Pirates, having beaten them soundly by a score of 8-5 in a make-up game played just three weeks – but a lifetime – ago.

Captain Mola was presented with a dilemma early, as Mark Sager showed up only to drop off Matthew Lella's goalie pads and then left, looking green and saying he was ill; Richard Bingham had begged off due to work obligations (are any obligations greater than to strap on the blades with one's teammates?); and Rob Kwinter had warned last Wednesday that he might be a no-show. So the Pirates chose to fall back on two pairs of defensemen (Todd Kitchen with Jim Butler – the Barrie Boys – and Blair Dimock with Les Klein), two centers (John Mutch and Nick Perri) and three sets of wingers (Dave Turner with Jim Jezioranski, Shaun Leggett with Vito Mola, and Auby Mandell with Jonathan Gallivan). Matthew Lella was in net again, protecting his awesome shutout streak.

The game started off as a solid defensive struggle, as both sides strove to put the puck into team's end, but from the earliest minutes it was clear that the Pirates were fired up, and the Chiefs by contrast were expecting just another comfortable win. It was the boys in black rather than the Hansons in white who were winning the races to the puck, and the battles against the boards were also being handled by your heroes. The backchecking by the forwards was superb, and line changes were flawless. Shifts were consistently short and hard, and the momentum slowly shifted to the Pirates. In the end, there were but two or three Chiefs that were able to penetrate into the Pirate zone with any effectiveness, and they were usually driven to the outside by the strong defense or had their pockets picked by the aggressive forwards.

With 6:20 remaining on the clock in the first, the Pirates generated the first goal on a lovely passing play from Kitchen to Mola to Perri, who slipped the puck neatly under the Chief's goalie. Nick, who has quietly done the job for the Pirates all season, has climbed into fifth place in team scoring, and was of course assisted by the Captain himself, who leads the team in assists with 10. In the second period, with 7:44 left, Jim Jezioranski (now nearing Mike Stein's all-time Mighty Pirate goal title) stole the puck at the Chiefs' blue line and beat all of them to the goalie, who was again beaten down low by this season's team leader in scoring.

And then, with 4:40 gone in the second, the swiftest Chief, sporting no visor and no cage, finally got a breakaway, and zipped one past Matthew Lella to make the game close at 2-1, and brought Matthew's scoreless streak to an end after an amazing 111 minutes and 33 seconds. Such a turn of events should have deadened the Pirate offense, but the boys stuck to Pirate Brand Hockey®, tying up the Chiefs in their end and clogging the neutral zone, and just 97 seconds later, the Barrie Boys struck again. Jim Butler fed his buddy Todd a perfect pass in the Pirates' end, and the two of them took off and beat the Chiefs defense for a two on one rush. With Todd looking straight at Jim on the other side, the goalie did not know what to expect, and Todd let loose a booming shot that was bending the twine before the goalie had reacted – a perfect fake-out!

That sealed the fate of the Chiefs, and the MPs notched up two more lovely goals in the third, one by John Mutch (now far ahead on the all-time Mighty Pirate scoring list) from a feed by Jim Butler (clearly recovered from his rib injury of two games back), and a second by Todd Kitchen in a scramble from passes by John Mutch and Mr. Assist Vito Mola.

It was a clean game by all accounts, with no penalties called, and relatively few uncalled infractions (though Auby Mandell and Nick Perri spent inordinate amounts of time skating with their stick well above their heads trying to escape the clutches of the Chiefs' defensemen). Matthew Lella on the other hand was outstanding, stopping two and three shot onslaughts when he had to (especially when both Les Klein and Blair Dimock found themselves simultaneously on their behinds at the blue line, having caught major divots in the ice trying to skate backwards and providing a classic Keystone Kops moment for the highlight reel). And the boys remained gentlemen, not trying to pile on the goals, but rather focusing on fine passing along the boards and dumping deep into the Chiefs' zone when necessary.

The final results of course are some weeks away, but in this crucial game, the Pirates showed that they could in fact play with the big boys and are still within striking distance of first place in the Coors Light Division. Next week's game features your heroes against the Condors, who have been beaten by the Pirates five times in a row going back three seasons, including a 3-2 loss earlier this campaign, but the scores have been closer and closer each time. Be at RINX 3 next Monday for another favorite 11:00 p.m. struggle to find out how it goes. And in the meantime, do not forget to take advantage of the opportunity to play live hockey against your own idols on Wednesday nights at 10:30 at Fenside Arena for the Wednesday Night Pirate Skate™. MPs, FPs, FoPs, OPs, SPs and JPs are all invited.

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie