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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.

EXPERIMENT OVER, PIRATES RELIEVED!!!
2005-02-07: Mighty Pirates 3 vs. Steelheads 2

My mistake, faithful readers. Somehow, after your Mighty Pirate heroes crushed the Condors 7-0 on January 24, it seemed almost redundant to pen (ah, how quaint!) another Howie Report on the Pirates' glorious victory over the Crunch 7-0 on January 31. How wildly did I underestimate the wrath of Mighty Pirate fans world-wide! All worshippers of the boys in black and yellow wanted the facts, the stats, the nitty gritty on each shift, each period, each goal, each assist. They wanted to see the names of their favorites spelled out in full in these lines. I failed them, and for that I humbly apologize.

So let me make it up to them now, and relate to you the happenings last Monday night on RINX 2, as the Pirates took to the ice against the Steelheads. These 'Heads sat in last place (though only separated from 6th by two points) in the TNHC Monday Night Coors Light Division, while your Pirates were in first place (by penalty minutes). The overconfidence in the locker room was palpable, and insidious. No amount of exhortation from the wise old men of the tribe could shake the attitude that this game was going to be a cake-walk. And it was hard to argue against - after all, for the first time in many a week, the Pirate squad was out in full force. The Barrie boys were back, with spanking new bios posted on the website, and no one was complaining about nagging aches and pains. No, this was a game everyone wanted a piece of - statistics danced in every head, sparkling passes and goals shone in every eye. This was to be Wednesday Night Pirate Hockey™, but with no one on the other side!

It was Captain Vito Mola who rose to the occasion, and realized that the team needed a good shaking up - and shake he did. He mixed up the forward and defensive lines and made the boys sit up and think about what it was they needed to do, since many had new jobs for the evening. Matthew Lella was still in net, but the defense consisted of Blair Dimock with Les Klein (no surprise there), Richard Bingham with Jonathan Gallivan, and Todd Kitchen with star center John Mutch. Surprised? There's more. The forward lines had Rob Kwinter centering Auby Mandell and Mark Sager, Nick Perri centering Jim Jezioranski and Dave Turner, and rookie defenseman Jim Butler centering Vito Mola and Shaun Leggett. With the Pirates, if you want excitement, you get it!

And the game got off to a good start, as the Pirates' newly minted lines got to work. With 6:58 remaining in the first period, Jim Butler got right to work and buried a lovely pass from Mola and Gallivan to make the score 1-0. This was followed up in short order by another patented rocket from El Capitano off a pass from play-maker Shaun Leggett with 3:48 left to make it 2-0. It certainly seemed that the Pirates were in flight. Would it be 7-0? 8-0? 9-0?

But the Steelheads had different ideas. They were not keen to be lumped with the beginner teams, just so much dirt to be run over by the big machines at the top of the division. They are, after all, a big team, and they have their share of good skaters - and a whole lot of grit. In exactly the way you would expect the Pirates to behave in such a situation, they gathered themselves up, and supported each other, turning it up a notch to get back in the game. They made up for the deficit by winning races to the puck, carrying the puck across the blue line with three men in position, driving to the net, and never ever giving up on an opportunity. They were also helped tremendously by a star-studded performance by their goalie, who stopped Pirate charge after Pirate charge with breath-taking stops and real gymnastics. Just two minutes and 6 seconds after Vito's bomb, they caught the Pirate defense napping and slipped a goal past an exposed Matthew Lella to end his shut-out streak and put themselves on the board. Imagine the Pirates' surprise when they did it again, with just 14 seconds left in the first, and the game was tied 2-2.

The Pirates were stunned. It became a real effort to focus on strong forechecking and backchecking, as the puck possession was about equal through much of the second period. And with so many Pirates playing unfamiliar positions, it was a bit of a scramble to ensure that forwards dropped back if defensemen rushed, and that no Steelhead got behind the last man. Halfway through the second period, it was Leggett himself who took the pass from Todd Kitchen to pot the go-ahead goal. And slowly, the reality of what it would take to protect the lead and chalk up a much-needed W began to sink in. The Pirates finally started to play as they normally would, with good positioning, crisp passing and coverage of the points. In the end, the grit of the Steelheads met the determination of the Buccaneers, and the Pirates prevailed. Again and again, the goalies at both ends of the ice turned away great scoring chances, and the game ended with a 3-2 victory for the Mighty Pirates (and a two minute interference penalty assessed against Richard Bingham!).

So, the good news was that the good guys won, it was a relatively clean game, the guys adapted to their new positions, and the Steelheads showed that they could play with the best. In addition, it was a wake-up call for your heroes, who have to play much, much better hockey if they are to compete with the crowd for the rest of the season and into the playoffs. So, while hats were off to the Captain for trying to shake the team out of their complacency, the cry in the locker room post-game was "End the Experiment!" We think it will come none too soon.

In the meantime, Wednesday Night Pirate hockey continues to limp along with minimal attendance, and is tottering on the edge of financial ruin, salary cap or no salary cap. If you care, come out. And be there next Monday night at 9:10 p.m. in RINX 2, as the season continues with the Pirates hosting the Tigers, who sit just two points behind the three teams currently tied for first place, with your Pirates nominally in the lead based upon fewest penalty minutes. It should be fun!

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie