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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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Incredible Undermanned Effort Gets Pirates Into the Finals!
2013-03-25: Mighty Pirates 5 at Toronto Blades 2

The Mighty Pirates (2-0) headed into a near must-win game against the top-seeded Toronto Blades (1-1) Monday night missing some of the greatest and most recognizable Pirate names that have ever played the game! It's a shame too, because this was an epic #1 vs. #2 playoff battle. Next time, these guys should just "pass over" the Seder ceremony... get it? Passover? Hardy har har? Regardless, there certainly were some great passes in this game.

Knowing that he had just 10 skaters to go up against a powerful Toronto Blades' attack, Captain Mola made some surprising tweaks to his lines on Game Day. He took Gallivan's spot on the red-hot Commute Line, but then moved Leggett to centre! Bold move considering we can't seem to remember Leggett at centre, well... ever! He also moved Mutch to the right wing of the 3M Line, which only had one "M" now with Gallivan and D. Turner aboard. Sousa teamed up with T. Turner as the first defensive pairing, while Besant and Jezioranski comprised the second.

Of course, when T. Turner went to put on his skates and discovered they weren't in his bag (and not a single soul in the building appeared to have an extra pair of size 13 skates kicking around), the team wondered how they were ever going to have the conditioning to keep pace with the Blades — who were only without their one Jewish player!

Unlike the Pirates' Round One game, this game started fast and furious. There was no feeling out period, and no hestitation by either team in knowing what they had to do. Some early dashes from the Blades' Iantosca (#84) got the crowd buzzing early, but the Pirates seemed determined to play perfect positional hockey, keeping him to the outside and forcing him at the blueline. And that would be the case all night.

Mutch opened the scoring just past the midway mark in a hard-fought first period as Gallivan beat out a Blade to the corner, firing a quick pass to the slot. While Mutch was denied on his first attempt, he battled for the rebound and flipped it high above the sprawled netminder. 1-0 Pirates!

As the Blades came right back hard at the Bucs, the game's only dark moment happened when a Blade player slid heavily, feet first, into the end boards. It was immediately clear that his night was over. But, in one of the classiest acts we've ever witnessed in True North Hockey Canada history, he offered his size 11 skates to T. Turner so that he could join the game. Amazing, class act! Sure, Turner the Younger had to cram his feet in a boot two sizes too small, but the 3-man "D" unit couldn't have been more relieved as he joined them midway through the game. If Oprah still had a daily TV show, this guy would be on it today!

Focused on the game, Daddy D. Turner, fired up his line mates on the bench saying, "We need the next goal. We need to get them playing 'hero' hockey!" While it wouldn't be his line that would do it, relentless forechecking from Lella and Leggett, and a sweet pass to Mola in the high slot, saw the Captain wire one of his patented "finish on the ground" slapshots that nearly ripped a hole in the net. It was 2-0 for your heroes, but there was no time for celebration. This game was far from over. The Pirate brains were focused!

Sturgeon's shutout streak was approaching 50 straight minutes of hockey now, almost a new record for the start of a playoffs, and he was needing to get sharper and sharper as more pucks were starting to come his way.

Quick line changes were imperative, and a constant rolling of the lines surely helped get all the Pirates in the game. Jumping onto the ice, Leggett and Lella once again charged the offensive zone wreaking havoc. Lella hit Mutch in close with a glorious pass, and the Pirates' all-time playoff point leader would make no mistake, giving the boys an immense 3-0 lead late in the second period.

However, the Blades were not backing down. Two missed poke checks gave Iantosca an opportunity to go nearly end to end, firing a screen shot home at the blue line before the period came to an end. It was now 3-1... and with a history of (for lack of a better word) historic playoff collapses, the Pirates knew they had to be better — even incredible — for the final 12 minutes.

So, Leggett would win an incredible draw to open the third, and the Pirates quickly gained the zone. Just 11 seconds into the final frame, Lella would find room in the slot and pound home a dramatic goal to give the Pirates another three-goal lead, 4-1. But still, there was no over-confidence. There wasn't that feeling that the game was well in hand. It was serious, Pirate Brand Hockey® to be played!

It's not a walk in the park to hold back the Toronto Blades, and two of their superstars would combine for a great goal that would cut the lead in half with well over eight minutes to go. And, as they continued to press, Sturgeon hit a strange patch of ice that sent him tumbling! Luckily, his blocker had the presence of mind to take the net with him, and crisis was averted.

The Blades would pull their goalie in the dying minutes, but Lella sent Mola up the middle, and he would thread the puck through two defenders into the yawning cage with 12 seconds to play in the classy, penalty-free game (the Pirates' second straight).

The Toronto Blades will now have to meet the Badgers next week to determine the Pirates' opponent in the Finals. Regardless of how great the Pirates were tonight, and whoever their opponent is... they will need to be just as good as they played on this night. Good thing they have two weeks (wait, 13 days!) to think about it.