WEDNESDAYS #7 vs. CRUNCH:

(vol. 6W, no. 7; newsletter by b.n.)
Going into the final game of the regular season , you could feel the anticipation mounting. After all, we had a chance at making history by writing another chapter in the Pirate record books — “Worst Regular Season.”Were we up to the challenge?

Here's the recap: We had eight skaters (absent from the lineup were Russ & Chris — both on the D.L. from Sunday's game — and Nick, Allen & Big Jim — all healthy scratches). Against a wildly offensive Crunch, we found ourselves on our heels early on, but we seemed up to the battle, although a bit disorganized. Then, a miscue in our zone, allowed the Crunch's Steve Polukard to steal the puck from our lone defensiveman and blast a shot into the empty net. They would carry the 1-0 lead into the first break.

Although we began the period on the powerplay and ended the period with a 5-on-3 powerplay, the Crunch were dominating the action (including their penalty kills). We kept them off the board all the way into the final moments of the 2nd when one of their forwards deked our defense and put in a breakaway goal at the buzzer for the 2-0 lead.

Another Crunch goal in the opening shifts of the 3rd gave them a comfortable 3-0 lead, and then Steve Polukard capitalized once again on another defensive miscue (when he stole the puck from one of our guys behind our net and quickly banged the puck in) for the 4-0 lead. We called a timeout to regroup and on the next face-off we came out gunning as Brian Newcomb ruined their shutout bid by scoring (assist to Scooby and Dave). After that goal we became more aggressive and put a series of pucks on net and threatened to close the gap more. Unfortunately, Roger was called on a penalty late in the 3rd and the Crunch added the special teams goal to wrap up the scoring, the game and a rather dreadful season.

LOST 5-1

THE
SILVER
SKULLS

1) BRIAN NEWCOMB
Not only did he score our lone goal, but Bri was once again quite the face-off artist.

2) ED SOUTHWORTH
Although he didn't score, Scooby (in a rare Wednesday appearance) had “wheels.” He also set-up Bri for our one goal.

3) JOHN CASSENS
Although he saved his goal for the next game (Wildman scored in the game he played after ours!) he was still a force up front. But this Skull also recognizes his awesome job in getting the team jackets done. Way to go, Wildman!!