ah ha! In my foolish frustration I forgot about the perl cookbook and its wealth of useful data. Sadly I consulted google (with very poor search terms no less (shame upon me)) and when it turned up crap that wasn't helpful, I got lazy and posted to here - after checking the tutorials section.
The "s///ms" trick is going into my working memory. I thank thee for pointing it out to me.
In regards to the rolling my own code for parsing out html/xml, I sort of am, but not without good reason. The program in progress needs to have some files in html format for no terribly good reason (insert boss module) and so it shall be. And in regards to CPAN, lets just say an overly paranoid sysadmin stands between me and that alternative. I could of course go for the  use lib '/bla/foo/meh' option, but for other reasons too complex waste your time on, that also isn't workable (see site inconsistency).
Ending rant before I realize what a crappy assignment I have and quit.

Again thanks a lot for the help.