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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.

The Howie-Les Report
2007-01-22: Mighty Pirates 2 vs. Loch Monsters 3

The Mighty Pirates and the Loch Monsters have played their parts on some pretty epic tales, and this Monday night was to be no exception. While some have claimed to see members of the respective teams chumming it up in such hip Toronto night spots as Howie's Bar, everyone knew there would be no love lost when the teams hit the ice.

It was a usual cast of characters for your heroes: Lella was between the pipes; Jezioranski, Kwinter, Matusek and Mintz were on defense; Gallivan, Mutch and Perri were at centre; Phillips, Sturgeon and Turner held down left wing; while Mandell, Besant and Mola were stage right. Time to drop the curtain!

There was fierce action from the drop of the puck, with both teams skating hard. The Monsters were determined not to sit back and watch the Pirates score goal after goal, like in last month's episode. Lella stood tall, however, making some key saves early on! Monster Mallion was called on to perform too during a first period power-play, specifically on a great shot from rookie star Sturgeon and with the encore save on a Sturgeonator spin-o-rama backhander.

The scoreless play continued well into the second frame until the Monsters foiled a Mola to Gallivan breakaway pass, putting the out-of-position Pirates down 0-1. And, the Monsters continued to press! If it wasn't for more stellar play from Lella, it could have been more than a 1-goal margin after two.

Starting the final period on the power-play, your heroes would finally get on the board after Mutch tapped in a booming slapper from Mandell.

Three and a half minutes later, the Pirates would gain the lead on a power-stride goal from Jezioranski initiated by Matusek. All the Pirates would need to do now is stay calm and keep the Monsters out of the zone.

Well, I'm sure you know your Pirates well enough by now — what they are supposed to do is not always what they do do — hehehe, I said "doo doo"!

Two minutes after the Pirates took the lead, the Monsters equalised as the Bucs were starting to scramble trying to keep up with the speed of their opponents. Now simply over-powering the Pirates to the puck, the Loch Monsters would take the lead for good with just 2:07 on the clock.

With 47 seconds to go, the Pirates attempted to get Lella out of the net for an extra attacker, but the purple beasts hemmed the Bucs deep in the corner for a solid 30 seconds. Your heroes did make it down the ice for a chance, but the Monsters calmly gained control of the puck, iced it, hit the post, and cheered anyway... for they were the winners of yet another exciting chapter of this epic rivalry.

Stay tuned as the Mighty Pirates will try yet again for their first win of 2007 against the surging Scorpions (7-7-1) next Monday, January 29th at 10:20pm