Portland Pirates regular season contest against the Utica Comets at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine on 11/28/2015. (PHOTO: Michael McSweeney/Portland Pirates)
PORTLAND – The Portland Pirates haven’t been desperate enough over the first quarter of the regular season, and it shows in the American Hockey League standings with the team hovering nearing the bottom of the Atlantic Division.
The Pirates sustained their fourth straight loss, falling 6-3 to the Utica Comets Saturday evening before 3,645 at the Cross Insurance Arena in downtown Portland.
Travis Ehrhardt had two goals, and Alex Grenier and Carter Bancks finished with two assists for the Comets.
We sat back too much,” said Pirates coach Tom Rowe. “We’re just too afraid to make a mistake instead of saying the hell with it and go with it.”
The Pirates (7-10-0-0) have only won four of their last 13 games, and now sit 13th out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference. It’s too early to the hit the panic button, but Rowe acknowledges the team needs to right the ship sooner than later.
“We’re working,” he said. “Just not working smart a lot of the times. They are afraid to make a mistake. When you play like that, things tend to go the other way. We need to start finding a little confidence and little swagger. I keep saying it’s early but before you know it, it’s too late.”
It only took Utica 2:30 into the first period to find the back of the net.
A turnover by MacKenzie Weegar, who was back in the lineup after Dylan Olsen was recalled earlier in the day, set up Ashton Saunter for a slap shot from outside the left circle to give a 1-0 lead to Utica.
The Pirates tied the game, 1-1, at 11:08 when Garrett Wilson tallied his first goal of the season, skating through three Utica players and snapping a wrist shot past Comets’ goalie Joe Cannata.
Utica scored twice within a span of 1:22 on goals from Ehrhardt and Niklas Jensen to take a 3-1 lead into the locker room after twenty minutes of play.
Portland scored twice in the second period, beginning with John McFarland just 1:50 into the period as he poked a rebound past Cannata from the right post to pull the Pirates within a goal, 3-2.
Ehrhardt added his second goal, this time a shorthanded goal, after Bancks won the faceoff back to Ehrhardt for a snap shot from the point, beating Pirates’ goaltender Mike McKenna.
Only 59 seconds later, Sena Acolatse scored his third of the season to cut Utica’s lead, 4-2.
“We had chances in the second period,” Rowe said. “When you chase (the game) you get tired, and you can’t do that all night. They were more structure than we were both games. Their game plan was better than ours, and they got it done. We didn’t.”
The Pirates, who are now 0-8-0-0 when trailing after two periods, finished 0-for-3 on the power play for the second consecutive game. Portland is now 2-for-28 (7.1%) in their last seven games.
“We’re scoring goals, but our special teams need to be better,” said Pirates’ rookie Kyle Rau.
Utica sealed the game in the third period with a brutal line change by the Pirates bench as John Negrin found Mike Zalewski for a breakaway, beating McKenna at the 5:08 mark.
“I might scratch somebody and go one short,” Rowe said about shaking up the roster. “We’re not going to keep doing this and have three or four guys not showing up to play the way they are supposed to play. We’ll go short if we have too.”
NOTES: Dylan Olsen was recalled by the Florida Panthers Saturday afternoon to fill in for an injured Alex Petrovic… Olsen appeared in nine games, recording two points with Portland. The Pirates also released forward Derek Army from his PTO. Army went scoreless in four games with the Pirates. He returns to the Wheeling Nailers where he posted three goals, eight assists for 11 points in 11 games.
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