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SUNDAYS #1 vs. FLUKES:

(vol. 8S, no. 1; newsletter by h.s.)
After our great post-season run, we have landed a group of "A" teams in our new season's schedule. First up, the Flukes — who came a shoot-out away from claiming the Eastern Division Crown last week.

Here's the recap: The Flukes looked as if they had 3-4 inches and about 25 lbs. per player on each Pirate (must be something in their water bottles — remember Rob Armswood?), but we had Jimmy and Scott on the forward unit, so we weren't going down without a fight. There were a lot of close calls in the 1st (at our end!), but the only goal was a powerplay goal by the Flukes in the final :90 seconds. At the end of the 1st, we trailed 1-0 (which could've been a lot worse if not for Roger, Scooby and Dave — “good ol' clearing Dave” — clearing those pucks out).

In the 2nd, Scott LeMatty changed the flow of the game by finding the net (assist to Russ) to tie things up at 1-1. I got the impression the Flukes were a little put-out by this and they began storming the zone rather tenaciously after our score (best block goes to Dan DiPierro who hustled back and dove and took a shot of the skate!). At the end of the 2nd, we were all locked-up at 1-1.

For the 3rd period, we decided that maybe we weren't yelling at Bobby the Ref enough, so we made an effort to rip him a new one each whistle. This policy picked-up in full when during a Fluke powerplay, a Pirate was pulled down and no penalty was called (even Bobby's seeing eye dog was going crazy!!) ... during the debacle, the puck was lazily tossed out of our zone where it was intercepted by a Fluke who came in and freakin' rifled a shot top right post to make it a 2-1 game. We were still arguing after the whistle, but it was pretty moot at that point. Then something strange happened: Wildman passed to “Carlson” — do my eyes deceive me? Carlson? one of the great all-time Pirate Scorers had the puck and shot and SCORED! Of course, Carlson was a.k.a. Jimmy “The Gun” Ferraro, and his goal tied it all up at 2-2 again. Next thing there was Scott still working the boards and finding Glenn "Mr. Opportunity" Farkas just by the face-off circle. Glenn got hold of the puck and did this little, fluid, ripped, no-angle, high-velocity number that blasted the twine to give the Pirates the first lead of the night, 3-2! With just less than 4:40 left, the Flukes were not going down lightly. Tim was put on the hotseat to take a ton of critical faceoffs and Wildman was among forwards who were doing their damndest not to relinquish the puck from the offensive zone. One of the last face-offs of the night had Tim in our zone with an empty-net staring at him from across the ice. Tim won the faceoff and in slow-motion he began meandering through Fluke players like a running back through mid-field (since i said "slow motion" it could have been, in fact, a jets running back, but i digress). By mid-ice a couple of guys seemed to actually be hanging off Tim, but still he was bobbing and weaving like Evander Holyfield (in the middle rounds) and getting closer and closer to the Fluke net. By the time he got to it was like that famous Messier-Lindros playoff moment from years ago when Messier was just hanging onto Eric as he headed for the empty net. And so, dramatically, Tim scored to seal the victory and give us a heck of a first night out.