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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.

Tigers, Pirates Battle for Their Playoff Lives
2005-03-24: Mighty Pirates 4 vs. Tigers 0

It seems to Howie that the playoff season is a bit like eating an artichoke. As the layers of an artichoke are peeled away, it gets smaller and smaller, but the layers get increasingly tasty as you get closer to the heart. So it is with the playoffs, at least for the Pirates. Each game sees fewer and fewer players showing up, as March break and injuries continue to take their toll on the Pirate roster. And yet, the games get more intense and more critical, and the victories all the more delicious.

A case in point was the do-or-die game last Thursday night at Rinx 1 against the Tigers. Both teams knew what was at stake as the time for the puck to drop drew near, and yet the Pirates knew that their biggest challenge was that they would be playing without the full squad on the ice. In the end, it was even worse than they feared — with Vito Mola and Blair Dimock injured, Shaun Leggett, Jim Butler and Dave Turner sidelined by the deadly Travel Bug, and Nick Perri distracted by family matters, there were just nine skaters to support Matthew Lella in net. But there were also good news — Vito Mola, ever the responsible captain, and Tim the "Super-Sturgeon" (the Mighty Pirates' back-up goalie and starting goaltender for the affiliate Summer Pirate squad) showed up for moral support as well as behind the bench coaching duties. And after extensive consultations with the Pirate brain trust, Vito came up with a unique strategy for the game. He designated three defensemen to cover the blue line — Todd Kitchen, Richard Bingham and Rob Kwinter — and two forward lines — Jim Jezioranski centering Auby Mandell and Les Klein and John Mutch centering Jonathan Gallivan and Mark Sager.

With visions of a Pirate team running out of steam against the Loch Monsters in the previous playoff game, the focus would have to be on a strong defense and quick, hard short shifts for the forward lines. The forwards would have to be counted on for hard back-checking to support the defense, and there could be no defensive pinching without a forward left behind to cover the blue line. And with images of the previous incredibly tight playoff game against the Tigers, the Pirates also knew that a W was far from "in the bag." If the Tigers were to score, they would have to earn it. The only solace was knowing that the Tigers were good sports and the game would be a good, clean hard-fought game, and no matter the outcome, it would be fun.

And so it was that the first two minutes of the game saw the Tigers trapping the Pirates in their own zone for three face-offs before the boys in black and yellow were finally able to clear the puck. Their center was able to win each of the drops and pull it back perfectly to his right defenseman, who possesses a shot worthy of the best in the division. It was up to Matthew between the pipes to keep the rubber from hitting the twine, and he did so perfectly. Only once the Pirates got their ice legs did the game begin to have a more even flow, and even then, the Tigers pressed the attack at every opportunity. Nevertheless, with 6:13 left on the clock in the first period, Klein — unfamiliarly playing right wing as in days of old — retrieved the puck off a clearing pass along the boards, and managed a shot that went wide of the net to conveniently connect with Jim Jezioranski's stick, who put it home for what turned out to be the game winner. Then, just over two minutes later, with the Pirates on their first power play of the night, Kitchen cleared the puck out of the Pirate zone, after a scramble in front of the net, to Mutch who carried it all the way down the right side, circled behind the net, and finally executed a perfect pass to Gallivan parked in the slot who put it behind the Tigers' goalie. And with just 48 seconds left on the clock, Jezioranski led the charge through the Tiger defense and passed it to a perfectly positioned Mandell on the left side, who made it count on a partial breakaway, punching the puck just past the goalie.

It may have sounded easy, but it was not. Kudos are due to Lampert, the Tiger goalie, who was nothing short of acrobatic in his performance. And the Tiger defensive squad worked all night both to protect the zone and to set up lovely give-and-go plays to the forwards. But the three goals in the first period would set up a huge challenge for them, one which would ultimately prove insurmountable. Nevertheless, they regrouped very effectively on the defensive end, and managed to frustrate the Pirates for nearly the entire duration of the game. Indeed, the second period of the contest was as even a game as this reporter has seen all season. Unfortunately for the Tigers, Matthew Lella was in his own zone all game, and Tim Sturgeon, observing his winter Pirate counterpart in action, quipped that the puck "must have seemed like a beachball" to Matthew, given the confidence he exuded during the play. In the third period, when the Tigers might have been able to capitalize on the Pirates' shortness of bench and potential shortness of breath, their efforts were victimized by a series of three unnecessary penalties that blunted their attack and allowed the Pirates to eat up the clock, until with just 59 seconds left on the clock, the Pirates, again on the power play, executed the type of tic-tac-toe play veterans of the Wednesday Night Pirate Skate™ are used to seeing from a pinching Bingham to a perfectly positioned Gallivan to a Mutch slicing across the crease in full flight. Final score: Mighty Pirates 4, Tigers 0.

It was the end of the season for the Tigers (though they are registered for Summer Hockey and are likely to see the affiliate Summer Pirates on many a warm and balmy Monday night from May to August), but just another step in the storied Mighty Pirate 2004-2005 season. And there is precious little time to ponder or pontificate (except perhaps as it applies to Good Friday and Easter), since the Pirates are up again Monday night at 8:00 p.m. in Rinx 3 against the one puzzle they have yet to solve this season, the Loch Monsters. Can they find the right combinations of flips and turns to get all of the colours of this Rubik's Cube to line up for them, or will they end up on the heap of a myriad of other fads that have seen the light and then faded from sight? The polls are split on this one, but as of this writing, 55% of all respondents believe in their heart of hearts that your heroes have what it takes to make this a game and take it to the final game on April 4, and beyond — to hoist the Starbucks Cup on high as 2004-2005 TNHC Monday Night Coors Light Division Champions. Let's see that happen!

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie