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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.

Pirates' Marathon Run Hits Heartbreak Hill
2005-03-21: Mighty Pirates 2 vs. Loch Monsters 3

Those who know the Boston Marathon know that the make-or-break moment in that race is Heartbreak Hill, a long uphill that separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls and the winners from the losers. It takes a special kind of heart to overcome what seems to be an endless climb with no end and no relief. Those who have lagged up to that point have that one last chance to find their second wind and go on to the finish, and many who until then felt that they could not lose often suddenly find their wind gone and never make it to the top.

Could there be a better analogy for this Mighty Pirate season? It has been a marathon from the beginning to the end. A grueling six preseason games acting as cannon fodder for the big gun teams in the Molson Dry Division were followed by a five-game winning streak in the Coors Light, which in turn was abruptly halted by two losses in a row during the roster-depleted holiday season, after which the boys rolled off six more wins in a row, and then finished with a lackluster 1-1-1 for the regular season. Howie can still feel the bumps and bruises from all of the ups and downs.

But now, we are in the playoffs, where every game, period, shift, minute and second counts, and the Pirates are playing for their winter season lives. After a heart-pounding 32 minute 5-4 victory over the Tigers in the opener, they faced their nemesis, the Loch Monsters, last Monday, and lost a heart-pounding affair in overtime, 3-2. Hockey games do not get more intense than this, folks!

So what happened? Certainly no one in the Mighty Pirates locker room in RINX 2 last Monday night was under any illusions that the game was going to be a cake walk, not even Captain Vito Mola, who - like any good Pirate captain who never abandons his ship - showed up to coach and cheer the team on, despite his knee condition that kept him from being able to dress. Matters were made even worse by the deadly combo of March Break and injuries, as in the end, only ten skaters answered the buzzer. Besides the injured Vito and Blair Dimock, Dave Turner, Shaun Leggett and Nick Perri were all conspicuous by their absences. Vito (after intensive consultations with former captain Richard Bingham), distributed the forces available to him as follows: Les Klein with Todd Kitchen and Richard Bingham with Jim Butler for defense; and two forward lines consisting of Rob Kwinter, John Mutch and Mark Sager, and Jonathan Gallivan, Jim Jezioranski and Auby Mandell (at least that is what Howie remembers, but you know how the memory goes after 50!). Matthew Lella was again in net for the boys wearing black and gold.

The game was a physically challenging affair, and there was plenty of skating for everyone from start to finish. Alas, the Monsters got ahead early, as just 27 seconds in, right-winger Long saw a lost face-off hit the referee, turning into a golden oppurtunity, and he rifled a shot into the back of the net behind a startled Lella to put them ahead 1-0. After that wake-up call, though, the Pirates gathered themselves and fought hard. There were few lapses on defence, and when there was, a forward was back to help out. Though the Monsters definitely had the advantage in terms of total time with puck possession, the Pirates pushed their opportunities and created their fair share of scoring chances through hard work and perseverance. And with the exception of one penalty called on the Pirates' Jim Butler, the frame was relatively clean. This of course was a great relief to the Pirates, who had come with the expectation that they would be subjected to the kind of rough-housing for which the Monsters have a reputation.

Early in the second period, with the Pirates on the offensive, the Monsters momentarily collapsed in on their own goal, and when the puck squirted out towards the blue line, Klein rushed back across and banged it fortuitously to John Mutch standing in the slot, who shot it home past a sprawling Monster goalie. That tied up the game and gave the Pirate bench a new spirit. They pressed their advantage, but the Monsters took that goal as their own wake-up alarm and shaped up their defence as well. There were a number of heart-stopping moments in the Pirate end that period as the puck managed to work its way past Matthew in the crease, find its way to the goal line, only to have a streaking Jonathan Gallivan or Todd Kitchen drag it out of harm's way. As well, Matthew's blocker and pads were working overtime deflecting shots to the corners and eliminating potential rebound opportunities.

In the third period, with 6:51 remaining on the clock, Todd Kitchen carried the puck to the Monster blue line, passed it off to John Mutch, who took a booming shot which rebounded ten feet from the goal. That in turn was picked up by a streaking defenceman Richard Bingham, who rammed it home to give the Pirates a late-in-the-game lead. Alas, that was a short-lived high, as the Monsters tied it up just 19 seconds later. The rest of the period was a grueling defensive battle, with neither team willing to risk losing on a late goal and each firing the puck out of their zone rather than taking the chance of creating scoring chances for the other team.

In the end, it was on to overtime, with TNHC rules in place requiring a 5:00 minute four-on-four contest, and changes only permitted on the fly. It was on an inopportune situation with the puck behind the Pirate net that a Monster flicked the puck over the net, hit the back of Lella's leg and bounced it in to end it with 2:01 remaining on the clock.

A fine game, and 34:59 seconds of Pirate Brand Hockey®, ended on a fluke. Well, the good news, as Jonathan Gallivan says, is that the Pirates have the chance to maximize their playoff dollars. They are now in a must-win situation for the next three games — it is really Heartbreak Hill. Either they find the strength in themselves and their much-reduced bench to beat the Tigers next Thursday at RINX 1 at 9:20 p.m., and then the Loch Monsters twice more on Monday, March 28 and Monday April 4, or their season is over. Have they got the heart and the lungs to complete this marathon run? Be there to find out for yourselves. Lots of other fans will be there — the Tigers and the Monsters always bring their own fans to every game. You won't want to miss it — or the Wednesday Night Pirate Skate™ tonight at 10:30 — you know the place.

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie