Missed Opportunity

The Pearl River Pirates dropped the second game of their weekend road trip into Westchester to the Bronxville Black Hawks (5-1) at the Westchester Skating Academy in Elmsford NY. The Pirates were coming off a 2-1 victory over the Rye Rangers on Saturday. Bad luck plagued the Pirates against the league leading squad from Bronxville. A first period score by CJ Greco was negated when the referee determined that the net had come free of its moorings before the puck crossed the line. Shortly thereafter the Hawks scored on an odd man rush. A tightly contested second period saw the squads leave the ice with the Pirates still down one to nothing. Netminder Joe Livornese thwarted drives by Griffin Welch, Ryan McLinsky and Dillon Krok to keep the Pirates at bay. Our Bucs kept knocking on the door but to no avail as Livornese was as good with his feet in scrambles as he proved to be with his gloved hand. Early in the third period Krok was dumped and shaken up behind the offensive net by defender Sohr. The injury delay seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the Pirates, who until that time, had played the Hawks on an even footing. When play resumed the Black Hawks sored three goals within four minutes to put the game away. Luke Myers' end to end rush resulted in a 15 foot wrister that eluded the goalie with barely two minutes left to play. It ended the shutout and occurred with Sammy Coughlin pulled from the Pirate net, but was answered quickly by a Hawk empty netter to complete the scoring. The hooting fan absent these past three weeks was heard to comment to the startled ref leaving the ice, "You missed a game too, I see. These Pirates deserved a better fate, given their effort on the ice," mumbled the bearded old timer to no one in particular.