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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.

Mighty Pirates Tame Tigers in Playoff Opener
2005-03-07: Mighty Pirates 5 vs. Tigers 4

Don't you just hate bye weeks in the midst of the playoffs? Howie certainly does. How are you supposed to maintain the intensity, the focus, the raw drive necessary to maintain momentum through these critical games sitting on your duff wondering when to show up next at the arena?

So Howie is here at last, determined to inspire the Mighty Pirates to new heights of hockey heroism as they prepare to face the Loch Monsters in the critical second game of the TNHC Monday Night Coors Light Division Pool A Playoffs. The Pirates have yet to beat the Monsters this season, and have only tied them once 2-2, in the very first game of the young season, when both teams were still in the Molson Dry Division, and not yet aware of the level of competition that they were to face. Since then, both teams dropped a division and the boys in black and gold have found themselves on the short end of two games, by scores of 1-2 and 2-4.

On top of that, the Pirates will also be severely short-handed for the contest, as Captain Vito Mola and all-star defenseman Blair Dimock continue their slow recovery from knee injuries, and March break takes Dave Turner and Shaun Leggett, a pair of strong wingers, out of the line-up. At best, the boys will be able to put 11 skaters on the ice, and they will be hard-pressed to solve the Monsters' riddle. The Loch Monsters trail the Original Chiefs by only 5 minutes as the second most penalized team in the division with 102 minutes, almost twice the total of the Pirates, and are notorious for their stick and body work. The Pirates fully expect to receive their share of bumps and bruises, and given the time pressures on the refs and timekeepers during the playoffs, will not be able to look to the officials for any solace.

On the other hand, the Pirates can look back to their efforts in the playoff opener against the Tigers two weeks ago, to learn some simple but important lessons. First and foremost, the Pirates had no illusions in the locker room before the game that it was going to be easy. Indeed, the tone before the game was serious, more indicative of nervous energy and trust in themselves and each other than over-confidence. Though the Pirates are a team noted for their comraderie and teamsmanship, rarely has this reporter seen a more unified sense of self than that Monday night. That solid confidence in each other was what held the team together through one of the most demanding and challenging contests of the entire season - a close, hard-fought, seesaw battle that needed 100% concentration all night long from every player on the ice and on the bench. In the end, there was general agreement that this is what this team comes out for every week - good clean hockey, evenly matched teams, punishment for errors and reward for hard work.

The Pirates gathered knowing that Blair and Vito would not be playing, but were buoyed by the fact that they both showed up to cheer the team on, to help with the gates and line changes, and to offer constructive input during the course of the game. On the down side, Richard Bingham reported in by email shortly before the puck was dropped that he was stricken with the flu and would be unable to play. On the other hand, everyone else came to play. Mark Sager, still on a high from his extraordinary game against the Komets in the last game of the regular season, where he notched an assist on the game-winner, had several other spectacular chances as a result of his high-flying skating and puck-handling (including an amazing back-handed wrist shot) and stood up several opposing players several sizes larger, was as pumped as ever, offering his signature "shoot, shoot, shoot" along with "go get 'em, Pirates" and other exhortations throughout the game, from the bench and on the ice. For fear of misreporting the facts, suffice it to say that Matthew Lella was his usual spectacular self between the pipes; the eight forwards were John Mutch, Jim Jezioranski, Auby Mandell, Dave Turner, Mark Sager, Shaun Leggett, Nick Perri and Jonathan Gallivan; and the defensive pairings were Jim Butler with Rob Kwinter, and Todd Kitchen with Les Klein.

The Pirates scored first and early, a critical fact as it turned out in this close contest, and were never actually behind. With just 1:45 off the clock in the first period, Gallivan picked up a loose puck at the Pirate blueline and fired a back-hand pass straight up the middle through two defenders to a streaking Mutch, who came in on net full tilt. There is no video evidence on whether he was tripped, or touched from behind, but as he came in on the goalie, he started to fall. While falling, he proceeded to somehow stuff the puck underneath the sprawling Tiger goalie. 1-0 Pirates. But less than two minutes later, the Tigers came roaring back to tie it 1-1.

That was the score, with control of the puck and the flow of the game swinging between the two teams fairly evenly, until with 7:13 left in the second period, Kwinter kicked free a loose puck to Mandell at the Tiger blueline. Mandell back-handed a pass to a streaking Gallivan, who somehow got behind the defensemen for a partial breakaway. The goalie, Lampert, made an expert save on the short-side, but Gallivan picked up the rebound and went behind the net. Spotting Mandell perfectly positioned in the slot, Gallivan fed him the puck, and Mandell threaded an incredible backhand shot over the goalie, to get the Pirates ahead again 2-1.

The second period was marred by some hot-under-the-collar action, with an altercation between Lella and a Tiger player that had Dave Turner sitting out a penalty on Matthew and Tiger Joshua sitting for four minutes. The Pirates were not able to capitalize on that advantage, as Jonathan Gallivan was called for a rare slashing penalty that had the young star forward seething at the mouth and blazing in the eyes. The situation was made worse when with 46 seconds off the clock in the third, Klein failed to block a pass to the front of the net from a Tiger in the corner, and the puck hit the back of Matthew's skates and bounced into the net to tie up the game 2-2. Luckily, less than two minutes later, Kitchen fired an expert breakout pass to Mutch, who was in full flight crossing the blueline. Mutch muscled his way towards the net, and managed to get a shot off from a sharp angle. Jezioranski, who could smell a goal, headed straight for the slot, and the rebound came right to him. He didn't waste any time and chipped the shot over the goalie who was down and out on the original shot. 3-2 Pirates. Alas, just a half-minute later, the Pirates got caught pinching with a 1-goal lead, and when the play swung quickly the other way, the Tigers got a 2 on 1. Tiger sniper Spencer made no mistake when he got the breakaway pass and tied up the game again.

Through all of this to-ing and fro-ing, the Pirates did not lose their cool. Whether it was Mola and Dimock keeping them focused on the bench, or the grit and determination of each and every player, there was never a sense of panic, frustration or fear, just a steady commitment to keep playing as well as they could. And one minute after the game was tied up, Leggett battled hard in front in a mad scramble, and beat the goalie with a great shot to regain the lead. And a minute and a half later, the Pirates added some insurance (which it turned out they needed!), as Mandell spotted Gallivan breaking through centre and hit him with a pass. As the defender tried to knock the puck away, Gallivan blew by him on the right side, and then headed for the goal all alone. A fake on the right side froze the goalie, as Gallivan deked way to the left of the net and slid the puck in for a two goal cushion.

But the Tigers were not done. With just over a minute to play and on the power play, they pulled their goalie and put six on four in the Pirates end, and with 1:03 on the clock, after a mad scramble, they put a shot from the right slot past a neutralized Lella to pull within one goal. The final seconds were as intense as this correspondent has seen on the ice at TNHC, but when the final buzzer sounded, the Pirates had secured their first W to kick off the playoffs.

All modesty aside, this report just does not do the Pirate (or Tiger) effort full justice. The highlight reels would have to show the entire game from start to finish. Just a few examples from a plethora of extraordinary effort will give our readers the flavour:

Midway through the third, 1-on-1 with a Tiger speedster, Kwinter made a diving poke-check that killed the threat instantly. Top-notch defending!
Lella's glove was working overtime in the third period with at least three awe-inspiring glove saves.
Mandell looked like Brett Hull during the second period, receiving a pass in the slot and ringing a shot off the post!
And you had to be there to see Mark Sager getting tied up with one of the Tigers near their bench - nothing was going to stop Mark from playing his shift, even if in meant plowing through the entire Tiger roster!

And no one can underestimate the value of Vito and Blair being there with the team on the bench, even though they could not play. Those guys epitomize what it means to be a Pirate, and what the entire team does to support each other. Add to that the grueling Mighty Pirate training program that continues Wednesday nights at 10:30 at Fenside Arena, and you can be sure that the boys will give it their all in their quest for the Starbucks Cup (and it had better not be one of those cheap paper things with the corrugated cardboard cover to protect your fingers from the heat, but something we can loft on high after taking it all!).

The excitement continues this coming Monday, March 21 at 9:10 on RINX 2 against the Loch Monsters. You really have to be there to believe it!

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie