There is no poll. Don't worry, we'll have more soon!

Stay tuned!

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 Report, 6 March 2006
2006-03-06: Mighty Pirates 3 vs. Condors 1

Where is Howie? Who is Howie? When is Howie going to return? How is Howie? The real question is "Why is Howie doing this at all?"

We admit that Howie has been in a bit of a funk of late - way too much work, way too much travel, way too much snowboarding, way too little hockey. And yes, it is no fun reporting on record-setting penalty minutes. But he is back, and ready to testify - Original Pirate Brand Hockey® is back. Yes, this is a much calmer, cooler, focused Pirate team taking the ice these days. And with the boys sporting an unbeaten-in-six-games streak going into the final game of the regular season against the last place Condors, there was still a lot on the line. If the boys were going to play in the A Pool for the playoffs, not only would they have to win the game, but also continue to keep their penalty minutes in check. In that 3-0-3 streak, the boys had finally begun to get the box time in control, having notched just 12 minutes in total in the last five games, and enjoyed a penalty-free outing the previous week against the Ice Cats.

Balancing this improvement in behavior was the fact that the ebony and black had been suffering from a consistently shorter bench than usual, both at the game and at the post-game Howie press conference and festivities. And against the Condors, Captain Mola was only able to roust 11 skaters to take the ice in front of goalkeeper Matthew Lella. With Bingham still out with the mysterious "Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo" (affecting hockey but apparently not snowboarding), Dimock with bruised ribs from a fall in the previous week's game, Leggett felled by the Travel Bug, and Mandell not back because of his back, CCM designated himself, Jim Jezioranski, Paul Matusek and Mark Cooper for defensive duties, put Rob Kwinter and John Mutch at centre, Nick Perri and Jonathan Gallivan at right wing, and Mark Sager, Dave Turner and Les Klein to patrol the left wing.

The Condors, on the other hand, were suffering from a much more severe depletion of their ranks, with a total of eight skaters and their tenacious and acrobatic goalie. As a result, they stuck to a very conservative and smart game plan, focusing on defense and waiting to capitalize on Pirate laxness and mistakes. In the first period, as a result, the puck spent a great deal of time in the Condors end, as Pirates shot after Pirate shot was turned away by the goalie. There were some extraordinary efforts to rush the puck by the strong-skating Condors, but the Pirate defense in turn managed to keep their shots at bay. In the end, Vito Mola broke open the scoring with 4:55 remaining in the first with a powerful shot from the slot, after hard work by Jim Jezioranski to carry it in and Nick Perri to set up the shot. Just under two minutes later, Nick Perri did it himself on a beautiful backhand to the upper right hand corner over a sprawling goalie, after Paul Matusek carried it in deep and took a great shot from the right side which had forced the goalie down in the first place.

Early in the second period, the Condors' De Kemp boys paired up to push the puck past the Pirate defense and woke up the Pirate bench with a goal that brought the birdies to within one goal. It took almost 4-1/2 minutes more for Nick Perri to notch his second goal and third point (on hard work from Mark Cooper and John Mutch) to reestablish the two goal differential. And an important point that was, for there was nary a point scored for the rest of the game. In fact, the Condors had a couple of great opportunities, one of which was broken up by a great effort to come back on a breakaway by Jim Jezioranski and another when the Condor lead man accidentally kicked the puck away and lost his chance at a clean breakaway.

Superb efforts were noted from Mark Sager and Dave Turner, who always seemed to be in the right place for great shots and strong defense, as well as hard skating by Rob Kwinter, John Mutch, Jonathan Gallivan and Nick Perri. The defensive staff was stalwart, and forechecking and backchecking were well executed by and large. And the biggest accomplishment was that, despite being tired and overworked, both teams avoided the sin bin, with the Pirates notching their second penalty-free game in a row. We are hoping that TNHC is watching the reformed Buccaneers, and the Pirates themselves are noticing a correlation between wins/ties and fewer penalty minutes. It just goes together, you know.

So Howie is happy, as the playoffs loom. The boys enter the A Pool in third place, and will be facing the Mid-Ice Crisis at 9:00 a.m. on RINX 3 for the first round. It should be a doozy - you ought to be there. And don't forget: the Wednesday Night Pirate Skate™ continues this week and until the end of March (we hope). Be there as well - it's good family fun.

GO PIRATES!!! VIVA LOS PIRATAS!!!

Howie