Pirates post game thoughts; McKenna nominate for AHL award

It’s been about 24 hours since the Pirates faced the Monarchs in Manchester. It was a game the Pirates would like to forget and they prepare for three games this weekend.

Here’s a little locker chatter after the game.

Andrew Ebbett:

Q: You’ve come against a tough team in the Monarchs; they’ve been on a bit of a roll lately.

A: “(Manchester) is a hot team. I thought their goalie (Dan Taylor) played extremely well tonight with the shutout. I mean we had chances, but it just seems the rebounds were going past our guys.”

“They’re (Manchester) playing well, playing for their playoff lives.”

“We’ve lost our last two games to them, but we’ve got three games in the next four days to rebound”

Q: This game had a certain playoff intensity to it.

A: “Yeah, we said that in the second intermission, it’s playoff hockey.”

“We’re down by one and those are the games you have got to come back and win if you’re gonna do anything in the playoffs.”

Q: Do you still have control of your own destiny for home ice or do not worry about it at this point?

A: “I think this weekend is going to be huge, if we can’t get three wins this weekend or two at least, it’s pretty much in Hartford’s hands, but we still control our own destiny. We could still win eight in a row and catch them.”

Pirates’ Head Coach Kevin Dineen:

Q: Playoff type hockey?

A: “Yeah, tight checking is the way those games are played out. You hope to capitalize on those chances and keep the puck out of the net.”

Q: It looks like you’ve corrected a few of things that went wrong on Saturday night.

A: “It’s one of those games with lots of chances and a couple deflections off to the side is the difference in the game.”

Q: You want to win every game, the results to always be in your favor, but your also looking to the process to see if the guys stick to the (team) philosophy.

A: “No, I don’t think there is any satisfaction in anything, other than it is was a loss game and we wanted a better effort and it didn’t happen, but obviously we would have like to put a dent into their playoff hopes, but that wasn’t part of it tonight.”

Q: You tried different line combinations tonight.

A: “You take Miller out of your lineup and you get lots of options that you get to put players in different situations, but he’s an awfully hard player to replace.”

Q: Is home ice still the primary focus

A: “We’re just playing game by game and that is an opportunity for us to try and get on home ice, but as long as it’s realistic that what we’re trying to do… something to strive for.”

********************

The AHL announced today the list of players nominated for the 2007-08 Yanick Dupre Memorial Award.

Nominated for the Pirates is goaltender Mike McKenna for his dedication and community service in Southern Maine. McKenna has also been very involved with charitable functions at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center.

The AHL’s annual Man of the Year award is named after the late Yanick Dupre, who died in 1997 at the age of 24, following a 16-month battle with leukemia. Dupre, an AHL All-Star in 1995, played four seasons with the Hershey Bears, registering 169 points in 207 AHL games. He also skated in 35 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Other names of note are former Pirates Zenon Konopka (Syracuse) and Trent Whitfield (Peoria) and former UMaine goaltenders Frank Doyle (Lowell) and Jimmy Howard (Grand Rapids)

You must be logged in to post a comment Login