Maine Hockey Journal

Pirates rewarded for solid team effort

Portland, ME – The Portland Pirates were finally rewarded for doing all the little thing right.

Jhonas Enroth made 29 saves as Mark Mancari added the only goal as the Pirates defeated the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 1-0, in front of 4,686 at the Cumberland County Civic Center on Friday night.

The Pirates coming off a well-played, hard-fought game against the Lowell Devils on Wednesday night, narrowly losing 2-1, but stayed with the same game plan against Bridgeport.

“We’ve been doing those little things well,” said Pirates’ captain Tyler Bouck. “It was a matter of (limiting) those big turnovers that keep costing us and keeping little mistakes from becoming big mistakes.”

After a scoreless first period, Mancari scored the lone Pirates goal at 12:37 of the second period while on a power play.

Pirates forward Tim Kennedy fed the puck to an open Mancari, who was at the top of the left faceoff circle, where he ripped the shot through a screen, beating Bridgeport goalie Nathan Lawson for the 1-0 lead.

The lead stayed that way for the rest of the game, however, not without the Pirates having a couple chances to add on to the lead, including a five-on-three for 1:06.

Portland failed to get a shot on goal during the five-on-three or five-on-four power play, leaving Dineen not impressed with those on the ice.

“I’ve made a lot of excuses for (the power play) this year, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the personnel,” said Dineen. “Based on that five-on-three performance tonight, they are very interchangeable parts. Our good players are not good in that role right now.”

“They are not looking at that as a privilege to play. They see it as an entitlement out there and (the) five-on-three was a perfect example of how bad the power play was.”

The Pirates only had three shots during the second period and went without a shot for 11:03 after Mancari scored his goal.

“We still tried to create shots and it didn’t seem like we were getting out played,” said Pirates’ captain Tyler Bouck.

With the win, the Pirates improved to 7-2-0 against the Sound Tigers at the Civic Center over the last five seasons as these two teams will play each other again on Saturday night back at the Civic Center.

NOTE: Nathan Gerbe was out of the lineup for a third straight game with flu-like symptoms. He’s expected to be out of the Pirates lineup until after the All-Star break, which for a team struggling to find offense is not a good situation. Gerbe is currently the Pirates leading goal scorer (19) in 29 games this season. As a result, Gerbe along with Tim Kennedy will not attend the All-Star Classic starting Sunday in Worcester, Mass. Mike Card will be out long-term with another concussion from a hit during a home game against the Hartford Wolf Pack. Card returned for six games after missing 23 games earlier this season from a concussion.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply