Maine Hockey Journal

Pirates find nothing sweet about Chocolatetown

Bears' goaltender Dan Ellis stops 25 of 27 shots for a 4-2 win against the Portland Pirates in Hershey, PA Saturday night. (PHOTO: Michael Mcsweeney/Portland Pirates)

Bears’ goaltender Dan Ellis stops 25 of 27 shots for a 4-2 win against the Portland Pirates in Hershey, PA Saturday night. (PHOTO: Michael Mcsweeney/Portland Pirates)

It’s going to be a long trip back to Portland for the Portland Pirates after coming out of the weekend series against the Hershey Bears with zero points.

The Pirates gave up three first-period goals to the Bears and never recovered falling 4-2 Saturday night in front of 10,029 at the Giant Center in Hershey, PA.

Portland’s plight can only be described in two words according to assistant coach Scott Allen.

“Special teams,” he said. “(Hershey’s) was very good and ours was awful on both sides of the puck. There were other situations that played into it, but that is by far and away the reason we are coming out of here with zero points.”

Hershey scored twice on the man-advantage in the first period and finished the game 2-for-5 on the power play.

Trailing 4-0, Kyle Rau returned to the lineup after missing Friday’s game with an injury and scored his seventh goal of the season with a bullet under the crossbar with 2:44 remaining in the game. The goal wasn’t confirmed until a stoppage in play 30 seconds later after the official originally waved it as no goal.

Portland went 1-for-20 on the power play until a meaningless late third-period goal by Logan Shaw made the score closer than the game actually appeared.

The Pirates skating 6-on-3 with Sam Brittain on the bench for an extra attacker and Madison Bowey and Ryan Stanton in the penalty box for the Bears. Shaw ripped a shot from the left circle, beating Hershey goaltender Dan Ellis on the shortside with 1:47 left in the game.

“It was a moot point,” said Allen. “It’s like being happy with a team out of the playoffs that win five of their last six games. It’s a bunch B.S. I don’t buy it, don’t fall for it and I don’t fall for it tonight. We put ourselves behind the eight ball.”

With the Pirates trailing 1-0 on a goal by Chris Bourque, Jonathan Racine, and Cameron Gaunce were each whistled for cross-checking only 49 seconds apart, giving Hershey an extended two-man advantage.

At 17:44, the Bears scored a five-on-three power play goal as Travis Boyd deflected Bourque shot from the point past Pirates’ goaltender Sam Brittain. Only 17 seconds later, former Pirate Chris Brown snapped a shot from the left circle to the upper far corner of the net for the Bears second power-play goal of the game and a 3-0 lead after one period.

“We got caught up in the penalties of the first period,” said Allen. “You can debate the penalties and some tough calls, but at the end of the day that happens in this league. You have to find a way to get through it, and we didn’t do that.”

“We talked about capturing and recapturing momentum, and we didn’t do either one,” he added. “(Hershey) did a perfect job of recapturing momentum and then building off that momentum by what they did on the power play.”

Portland made a switch in goal to start the second period as McKenna, who started the previous eight games, took over for Brittain.

Paul Carey crashed the net to make it 4-0 for the Bears with the lone goal of the second period, connecting on Ryan Stanton shot from the left point at the 11:34 mark of the period.

Brittain, seeing his first action in net since Oct. 30, was back in net for McKenna (five saves) to start the third period and finished with 21 saves on 24 shots.

“It’s been tough for Sammy. He hasn’t played a whole lot. Mike’s played extremely well,” said Allen. “It was a 3-0 game, we score a goal, and we’re right back in it. Now, we go down 4-0 going into the third period. We needed to get Sam some playing time.”

NOTES: Florida Panthers prospect Colin Stevens earned his first professional win with the Manchester Monarchs in a 5-1 victory over the Norfolk Admirals. Stevens, sharing goaltending duties with former Panthers prospect Michael Houser, made 21 saves for the Monarchs.

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