Maine Hockey Journal

Pirates on Thin Ice

Binghamton, NY – The Portland Pirates continue to be inconsistent in their effort.

After putting together a solid performance against the Devils, a 4-3 win in Lowell just a night earlier, the Portland Pirates came out like a stale bag of potato chips as the Binghamton Senators scored four straight goals enroute to a 5-2 win in front of 4,018 at the Broome County Veteran Memorial Arena on Saturday night.

With the loss to the Senators, Portland failed to gain important ground on the Lowell Devils and Worcester Sharks, who were both idle. The Pirates presently sit in sixth place with 70 points, six behind Lowell and three behind Worcester.

The Pirates currently are in the midst of road trip were they will play nine of 10 games on the road. Dealing with issues such as long bus rides, hotels and weather is something the Pirates will have to deal with as they fight their way to a spot in the Calder Cup playoffs.

The Pirates didn’t arrive in Binghamton til Saturday afternoon because of the snowstorm battering the Northeast.

“I could use the excuse of all the travel and not arriving until the afternoon,” said Pirates Head Coach Kevin Dineen in Portland Press Herald interview, “but in saying all that it was probably the most surprising game this year. I thought our guys were ready to play and to read my group as badly as I did was very surprising. Obviously we weren’t ready to play.”

Binghamton jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period and never looked back.

At 5:54, Arttu Luttinen benefited from the broken stick of Greg Amadio, flipping the puck over Pirates goaltender Gerald Coleman from the slot.

A turnover by the Pirates led to the Senators second goal as Mike Sgori, on a two-on-one, dished the puck to Andrew Ebbett, who redirected puck by Coleman with 5:29 left in the period.

Kevin Saurette made it 3-0 when he scored his first career AHL goal, stuffing the rebound by Coleman at 3:22 of the second period.

Binghamton extended the lead to 4-0 as Corey Pecker fed the puck to Bobby Robins, streaking across the net and again a redirected puck beat Coleman.

The Pirates weren’t without their chances as they outshot the Senators 26-16, but despite the Senators (19-39-3-5) having the league’s worse record. They couldn’t penetrate the slot as Binghamton kept Portland to the outside for most of the night.

When the Pirates did break the Senators defense, they were able to generate quality-scoring chances.

Petteri Wirtanen finally capitalized on one of those rare chances as he used a baseball swing in the slot, beating Senators goaltender Jeff Glass for his seventh goal of the season, cutting into the Senators lead at 12:44 mark of the third period.

Glass replaced Kelly Guard in goal to start the third period.

Saurette scored his second goal of the night on the power play with 1:03 left in the game, but before the goal was announced Pirates forward Mark Hartigan, ripped a snap shot by Glass just 13 seconds later.

Gerald Coleman stopped 16 of 21 shots in the loss, dropping to 1-2 with a 4.00 GAA and 0.840 save percentage. At the other end, Kelly Guard and Jeff Glass combined to stop 39 of 41 shots in the win.

Plank Notes:
– Joe Motzko had his point-scoring streak snapped at three games.
– The Pirates return to action on Sunday as they travel to Worcester to face the Sharks at the DCU Center. Game time is 4:00pm

Three Stars of the Game:
1. BNG – Kevin Saurette (2G, GWG)
2. BNG – Andrew Ebbett (1G, +3)
3. BNG – Corey Pecker (2A, +1)

Shot on Goal:
POR – 13-13-15=41
BNG – 8-8-5=21

Goals by Period:
POR – 0-0-2=2
BNG – 2-2-1=5

Power Play Summary:
Portland Pirates PP – 0-for-5
Binghamton Senators PP – 1-for-2

Goaltending Summary:
POR – Coleman (L) (3-3-0) 21 Shots/16 Saves
BNG – Guard (W) (10-21-3) 26 Shots/26 Saves
Glass (9-21-2) 15 Shots/13 Saves

Scoring Summary:
1. BNG Luttinen, (10) (Komadoski, Pecker), 5:54
1. BNG Ebbett, (20) (Sgroi, Cook), 14:31
2. BNG Saurette, (1) (David, Rawlyk), 3:22
2. BNG Robins, (6) (Pecker), 11:58
3. POR Wirtanen, (7) (Ferguson, Rome), 12:44
3. BNG Saurette, (2) (David, Koalska), 18:57 (PP)
3. POR Hartigan, (27) , 19:10

Penalty Summary:
1 – POR Hoffman, 1:37 – Fighting , 5 min
1 – BNG Sgroi, 1:37 – Fighting , 5 min
1 – POR Ferguson, 7:00 – Roughing , 2 min
1 – BNG David, 7:00 – Roughing , 2 min
1 – BNG Hennessy, 19:09 – Hooking , 2 min (PP)
2 – POR Keith, 4:38 – Tripping , 2 min (PP)
2 – BNG Allison, 7:36 – Holding , 2 min (PP)
2 – BNG Cook, 16:04 – Tripping , 2 min (PP)
3 – POR Motzko, 9:45 – Unsportsmanlike conduct , 2 min
3 – BNG Allison, 9:45 – Roughing , 2 min
3 – BNG Ebbett, 10:38 – Elbowing , 2 min (PP)
3 – BNG Saurette, 13:44 – Holding , 2 min (PP)
3 – POR Hartigan, 17:02 – Interference , 2 min
3 – BNG Bois, 17:02 – Slashing , 2 min
3 – POR Keith, 17:25 – Holding , 2 min
3 – BNG Pecker, 17:25 – Diving (64.2), 2 min
3 – POR Carter, 18:25 – Slashing , 2 min (PP)
3 – POR Peters, 18:25 – Roughing , 2 min
3 – BNG Rawlyk, 18:25 – Roughing , 2 min

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