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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!

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Nothing Resolved but Heart and Maybe a Lack of Lungs
2006-01-23: Mighty Pirates 3 vs. Loch Monsters 3

The Mighty Pirates scored first, the Loch Monsters scored last, and in-between they traded goals so that at the end of 32 minutes nothing was resolved. But it was a great game even if the referees let blatant infractions go, dropped the puck before the teams were actually lined up, and hurried off the ice before the teams even started to shake hands. Get the idea these guys had some place else to be? I sure did. But in spite of that, and some consternation and frustration on the part of your heroes regarding nothing being called, it was a pretty great game with lots of skating and lots of excitement.

Things started off on the wrong foot when the expected absence list, consisting of Cooper and Klein, was bolstered by calls from the medical clinic concerning Bingham, Kwinter, and finally Dimock. (You gotta think that Paul Matusek was more than a little concerned to find himself the sole defenceman to show up to the game.) But Captain Mola cobbled together a fine D unit by pairing Jim Jezioranski (in the process of converting from free wheeling forward to free wheeling defenceman) with Matusek and himself with Jonathan Gallivan. For forward units, he went with Sager-Perri-Mandell and Turner-Mutch-Leggett.

The clock started and six seconds later the referee finally dropped the puck, setting the tone for their performance for the night. From the opening face-off the Mighty Pirates jumped all over the Loch Monsters who collectively looked a little surprised to find themselves on the ice at all. The Pirates buzzed around the Loch Monster net, with Gallivan slipping behind the D and some other chances that didn't quite pan out, and dominated play in the neutral zone until about mid-way through the first period when the Monsters seemed to shake off whatever was holding them back and jump right into the game. From there on, it was a seesaw, full pitched battle with each team pouring it on, back checking, and pulling out all the stops. Thankfully, the benches were about equally manned and the teams more or less evenly conditioned, though this would not hold true for the final period.

Captain Mola got things going when he spotted Leggett cruising in behind the Monsters' defence and hit the forward with a beautifully threaded pass from deep in the left face-off circle. Leggett corralled the hard pass and calmly skated in from the blueline, wristing a short-side beauty for the first goal of the game. Unfortunately, just over a minute later, the Monsters answered that tally with a pretty nice goal of their own, converting a pass in the slot that Lella had no chance of stopping. Undaunted, the Pirates stuck to their game and skated their hearts out. When Perri blasted a shot on net only to have the the goalie lose the rebound, Sager pounced on the puck like a gray hound on a rabbit, even passing a fellow Pirate to be first to the biscuit which he adroitly smashed into the top of the net.

The Mighty Pirates carried the 2-1 lead into the second period only to see it once again evaporate under pressure from the Loch Monsters. But Jezioranski picked up the puck a minute later and did what he does so well. Rush! Driving deep around the Monsters' D, Jezioranski slid a perfect backhand pass from the bottom of the circle diagonally into the slot where Perri, following hard on the play, perfectly timed his arrival in order to one-time the puck past the Loch Monsters' goalie to regain the lead.

The Mighty Pirates carried the 3-2 lead into the third period but the last frame started to show that the Monsters had an edge in conditioning. The Monsters were further bolstered by the late arrival of one of their steadier defencemen and soon the Mighty Pirates' attack started to falter earlier and earlier in their opponents' zone until the Bucs started having trouble getting through the neutral zone. That left the sole point of the period to the Monsters' star sniper who took advantage of the flagging Pirates with a few men on the ice too long, he skated through most of the team and with some of the Bucs actually standing at centre ice (forgive them o' ye hockey gods, they know not what they do!) put the puck past Lella for a pretty (if you're a Loch Monster) solo effort tally.

The Bucs had just enough left in the tank to ride out the game, killing the time with some last ditch offence, and gritty defense to preserve a point. It sure felt like a tie from this point of view, but it was a fun game to play and a great effort. The only thing I can say is hit the gym boys. That is definitely a point you didn't have to give away.