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WEDNESDAYS #6 vs. CRUNCH:

(vol. 9W, no. 6; newsletter by b.n.)
Another Wednesday, another loss.
Where's the excitement?
Where's the drama?
After last week's newsletter, I got an email from the editor indicating that he wanted these things a little shorter. Now normally, I would take this as a direct challenge to make this thing as epic as say “War and Peace.” But not this week. I got nothing in the tank so this will be a brief one. Not too brief though, because I do have a reputation to uphold, but brief in the terms of not as long as newsletters that have gone out in the past. I would even guess that this might be briefer than the Sunday Night Newsletter, but not as brief as some of the newsletters that Harris authored.

Our latest Wednesday night game found us up against the Crunch. Before the game we were taking a headcount on players and some unfamiliar faces popped up. BB? Who is BB? Oh yeah he was on the team the last couple seasons ... I thought he wasn't playing this season because he hadn't been to a Wednesday game in what seems like forever. And Sunday Night Standout Scott Lammatttyy was sitting next to Russ, getting dressed in the locker room. So it looked like a full roster as the Pirates skated out on to the floor. Then at the very last second, LeMatty threw on a Crunch jersey and headed to the opposite bench.

The game began with BB-Farkas-#67 on offense, while Ferraro and Allen where primed and ready to jump in. The defense for the night consisted of Chambers, Roger, Dave and Russ. While in the net we had Doug Collimore. The game started promising enough, with the Pirates pressing hard, but nothing was going in to the net. Then one of the Crunch outskated our “D” down the right wing, broke to the net, skated around a sprawled Collimore and backhanded the puck into the wide-open net. The Crunch got their next goal on a point blank slapshot from former-Pirate Eddie Gesior. The Crunch got yet another one to make the score 3-0. It was like déjà vu all over again ... What is the deal with the Wednesday night league?

Chris Goione showed up a little late and was able to add some consistency to the offensive lines and perhaps that helped because before things got any worse, the puck was worked into the Crunch zone and ended up on the stick of Ferraro who was camped out behind the net. #67 was breaking from the left faceoff circle to the net and Jimmy hit him with a great pass that #67 was able to deflect into the net (It wasn't the hardest of shots but it went in). It seemed to be shortly thereafter that the Pirates were once again rewarded with some hard work down low when Ferraro was mugged in front of the net; with everyone piled on, the puck sat loose to the left of the crease and Farkas swooped in and flipped in the puck.

They say “bad things come in threes.” It also seems to be how we fare with the goals. The Crunch got the first three, then it looked like we were back in it at 3-2, but once again bad things happened, and the Crunch were able to pick up another three goals. The Pirates would add one more when Chris skated around a Crunch guy at the blueline and was able to feed a streaking Farkas for his second goal of the night.

It should be noted that the refs must have been in a bad mood before this game started because I noticed that Doug Meyer of the Rhinos had been thrown out of the game before ours. So it should have been no surprise that someone would get tossed from our game. The only thing that is surprising was who got tossed. Let's face it, if Russ or Farkas got the boot, we would not be overly surprised ... but when Roger was called for a hold (or maybe it was a trip) on a questionable call behind our own net, it was surprising to see him try to plead his case by draping hold of Bobby by both arms and yelling (or pleading ... or perhaps crying) that he didn't touch the Crunch guy. So that was it for Roger (he got a 10:00 minute misconduct, but with only 6:00 minutes remaining in the game his night was over).

The Pirates were able to mount some pressure shorthanded, but couldn't catch a break. Doug Collimore had a great save on a breakaway that prevented things from getting any worse. Before the night came to a close, one of the Crunch tried to take Ferraro's head off with his stick; nothing was called on the Crunch guy, but Ferraro got 2:00 minutes when he swatted the loose stick (dropped by the offender who was giving the innocent “not me” look). I'm not certain what was said, but Ferraro also got the 10:00 minute misconduct which effectively ended his night.