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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
2016-10-03: Mighty Pirates 1 vs. Highest Puck 4

As the Pirates (0-1-2) stepped onto the NHL-sized ice of the Powerade Centre, they knew that they'd need to be conservering their energy if they didn't want to get blown out by the Highest Puck (2-0-1). Don't be fooled by the name... new-ish rivals the Mississauga Rangers have simply gone through a re-branding process. Apparently their new jerseys are on the way, but they wore the familiar blue, red and white, that we've all come to despise with vigor, on this occasion.

With Rosh Hashanah on the calendar, and a variety of other ailments floating around the club, a remarkable 14 of 22 Bucs on the roster were unavailable for this game. That's 64% of the roster, folks!

And, still without a wintertime Captain, Summer Captain Sousa had to step up and make the lines; but, truly, there wasn't much to organize, right Mikey? He assigned Gallivan, Livergant, D. Turner and himself up front, while C. Besant, Jezioranski and T. Turner manned the blueline. No fuss, no muss.

The Highest Puck came out hungry, with some severe pressure in the opening minute. Sturgeon made a flurry of saves, with the puck eventually being turned over behind the net, and a tic-tac-toe play put the Bucs behind early... something they've allowed to happen in all three of their games so far this season. They may want to address this sooner than later!

The Pirates did not wait to respond, and Sousa made a nice breakout play to create a two-on-one with Gallivan. The give-and-go pass reached Sousa in the slot, but keeper Pacitto stood his ground to make the save.

From there, things settled down a bit as the Pirates played some Conservative (yes, that's a capital "C") hockey. Not the most riveting affair for a live, global broadcast on LiveBarn.com, but your heroes weren't as much worried about pleasing their fans as their were trying to simply breathe oxygen out there.

The Pirates did attempt to break in a number of times to equalize, but the Highest Puck were playing some quality defence. At one point, Sousa got a stick to the head and a nosebleed. For a few minutes, the Bucs were down to six skaters! Yikes!

A powerplay chance midway through the first yielded little, and nothing came from the man-advantage after Sousa was tripped up late in the first, even though Jezioranski and Livergant had quality scoring chances. In fact, the Pirates are now 0-for-7 on the season! Something tells me they should be working on the PP in their next practice.

A miscue on a clearing pass that went directly into the slot to open the middle frame resulted in a one-timer goal that Sturgeon had no chance on. 0-2 bad guys. Moments later, Jezioranski would skate in and around all five blueshirts before firing a shot on goal; unfortunately, the puck couldn't find its way to the mesh.

At the midway mark, a slapshot from centre ice would fool the Sturgeonator, giving the Highest Puck a 0-3 lead. Sensing the Pirates were a little bit dejected, and slowing down a bit, the Highest Puck began applying some "death-nail" pressure.

The HPs dominated on their only powerplay of the game, midway through the third, and made it 0-4... but, there would be some reward for your valiant heroes.

As the clock counted into the final minutes, Livergant made a strong play along the boards to keep the puck in the offensive zone... strong enough to send his opponent tumbling into the boards, freeing C. Besant to collect the puck. C. Besant's boomer, intended for Gallivan to tip, bounced off the end boards, sliding to Sousa at the other end. Sousa made an incredible move around a defender, firing the puck towards the net. The rebound could not be cleared, and Gallivan was there to tap in the puck for the Pirates' lone goal. It felt great!

Well, we do know that the Pirates were glad to hear the final buzzer. It was a respectable game, regardless of the fact the team remains without a win in the 2016/2017 season. With a bigger roster, we're sure the Bucs will give Highest Puck a run for their money at their next meeting. Stay tuned!