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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.

Howie's Back, and There's Gonna Be Trouble....
2005-09-26: Mighty Pirates 4 vs. Mid-Ice Crisis 1

That was quite a first game for Howie, face-to-face with the Mid-Ice Crisis. I am glad you were all up on your Geritol, because it clearly took every ounce of Pirate energy to stay in that game. The MIC came out hard from the first drop of the puck, and did not stop pushing until the very end of the game, even though their squad was severely depleted by the 11:15 p.m. start time. And even with their top scorer and play-maker missing, they managed to stay close to the Pirates until 1:30 before the final buzzer, when with the score at 2-1 for the black-and-yellow, the MIC pulled out all the stops and their goalie, and nearly tied it up with a ....

But I get ahead of myself. The biggest issue coming out of the bizarre season that the Summer Pirates had (undefeated in the season, blown out in two games in the playoffs) was that of overconfidence. Now admittedly, Howie was out of the country and missed the season opener against the Tigers, which your heroes won in convincing style 6-1. But the overconfidence that you would have expected in the locker room after that victory was decidedly missing last Monday, as the Pirates faced the Mid-Ice Crisis in the debilitating 11:15 p.m. game on RINX 1. Indeed, it was a mixture of dread and anticipation that was palpable in the well-used locker room air.

Captain Mola, fresh from a 4-goal game in game 1, was trying to stress to his troops the need to play strong defence, and to let the offense come as it is given to them. With solid defenseman Rob Kwinter, Mark "Jaromir" Sager and AWOL Richard Bingham all scratches, Vito chose to go with four defensemen (Mark Cooper and Paul Matusek, Blair Dimock and Les Klein), two centres (Nick Perri and Jonathan Gallivan) and three pairs of wingers (Leggett and Mandell, Jezioranski and Turner, Mola and Mutch). Of critical importance was Matthew Lella in net, solid as usual.

As it happened, the game was a barn-burner! Up and down the ice, both squads worked their hearts out on the charge and on the back-check, creating scoring opportunities that were turned away time and time again by the solid defense and stellar goal-tending. It was not until half-way through the second period that the Mighty Pirates finally broke through the MIC lines in - of all times - a short-handed situation with the indomitable Mutch sitting in the penalty box, when Leggett and Mandell put on a two on one scoring clinic and passed the puck back and forth in perfect time until Leggett slid the puck under the Crisis goalie for the first tally of the game. Alas, just 2:01 later, Klein tried to stop a rush while standing perfectly still, letting the soft-handed Banks of the MIC undress him at the blue line and go in to shoot the puck unimpeded against a surprised and unprotected Lella to tie it up.

Luckily, by the third period, even the young, energetic MICs were feeling the pinch of their short bench, and with 7:37 left on the clock, Gallivan joined the Mandell/Leggett show and took the sweet pass from his wingers and made good on the promise. Even so, the Crisises were not giving up, and with 1:30 left on the clock, called a time-out, pulled the goalie with the puck in the Pirates' end, and managed to spring the puck loose from the crowd in the circle, giving one of their snipers a clear shot at the empty half of the net. Somehow - somehow - Lella was the only one who anticipated this situation and managed a heart-stopping toe-save of the shot, deflecting the puck to the right side of the ice and away from the sure tying goal. Mutch then alertly picked up the puck, advanced it to Captain Mola who took it in all the way and made the empty net goal, icing the game. Not to be left out in the cold, the Gallivan/Mandell/Leggett front line made it a hat trick, with Leggett again delivering the coup de grace with just four seconds to go.

So the final score of 4-1 was hardly the story at all - rather it was the almost lost point with seconds to go in the game that made the highlight reel - and rightly so. This was a tight game from beginning to end, and one that gives the Pirates much hope for another great, competitive season in the Monday Molson Dry Division. It looks like every game could depend on which Mighty Pirate team shows up - the one committed to Pirate Brand Hockey®, or the one with their heads in the clouds and imagining munching beer-and-wings before the first drop of the puck.

It certainly does not get any easier next Monday, with the Pirates facing their nemesis-du-jour, the Loch Monsters, who have OWNED the Pirates throughout their long rivalry (0-4-1). Furthermore, with the sounds of shofars in their ears, Kwinter, Cooper, Mandell, Sager and Klein will be missing from the line-up. Rumour has it, though, that Pirate management is considering calling up Todd Kitchen, ex-Summer Pirate captain who recently hung up his yellow and blacks, for the game to give the defence a bit of help. Be at RINX 2 at 6:10 and find out how it turns out!!!

Also, look out soon for the return of the Wednesday Night Pirate Skate™, coming to Fenside Arena soon!

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie