Maine Hockey Journal

McKenna makes 45 saves as Pirates snap losing streak

Portland Pirates regular season contest against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine on 1/2/2016. (PHOTO: Michael McSweeney/Portland Pirates)

Portland Pirates regular season contest against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine on 1/2/2016. (PHOTO: Michael McSweeney/Portland Pirates)


Mike McKenna made 45 saves for the Portland Pirates as they escaped Friday evening with a 3-1 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms before 8,600 at the PPL Center in downtown Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Pirates (27-18-1-0) snapped a three-game losing streak to remain in third place in the American Hockey League’s Atlantic Division Standings based on points percentage.

After going 16-3-1 over their last 20 games, the Pirates entered the weekend losing five of their last seven games, including both games last weekend where they were outscored by a combined score of 8-1.

“We’re a very fragile group right now coming off three straight losses,” said Pirates head coach Scott Allen. “Guys get concerned. As much as we try to instill confidence in them. Actions speak louder than words, and that was a rattled group, so I thought it was important to get the win. Regardless of how we got it, we needed to get it under our belt.”

Portland, who is starting its longest road trip of the season, a seven-game trip over 12 days, opened the scoring with the only goal of the first period.

Rookie forward Kyle Rau tallied his first goal since Jan. 2 to break a 14-game goal-scoring drought as he pounced on a bouncing puck at the bottom of the right faceoff circle off at 7:57 of the first period.

Former Pirate’ Chris Conner tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal midway through the second period, redirecting Taylor Leier’s feed past McKenna.

McKenna made 33 of his 34 saves through the first two periods including several point-blank saves to keep the game either tied or the Pirates out front by a goal.

“I love it when a goalie performs the way (McKenna) did tonight,” said Allen. “It means that we have an outstanding goaltender, not that we didn’t know that. We talked about doing what was necessary to get the win and Mike McKenna certainly did what was necessary.”

With 2:20 remaining in the second period, the Pirates regained the lead less than 20 seconds after Lehigh Valley’s third consecutive power play.

Off a save by McKenna, forward Wayne Simpson rushed the puck up ice along the left side and cut to the slot where he snapped a shot on goal that was stopped by Phantoms’ goaltender Jason LaBarbera.

LaBarbera wasn’t able to make a second save as Rocco Grimaldi got to the rebound at the left circle for his 10th goal of the season.

“I didn’t like our first two periods tonight,” Allen said. “We gave up a lot of scoring chances against and didn’t get a lot (scoring chances) for, but with the third period, even with killing two penalties, we substantially cut down on our scoring chances against.”

“It was big when Rocco comes out of the box and ends up scoring the eventual game-winning goal.”

McKenna, who held Lehigh Valley scoreless in the third period, added his second assist of the game as he attempted to score an empty-net goal from 200 feet away. The puck didn’t make the distance, but Greg McKegg was there to tap in the puck into the empty net with 11 seconds remaining in the game.

“There’s one,” said Allen. “One down on this road trip.”

NOTES: Corban Knight returned to the Pirates lineup after being assigned to the AHL earlier in the day. Knight, who went scoreless with the Pirates, appeared in 20 games with the Panthers after being recalled on Dec. 14. Allen said he expected Knight to have the type of game he did due to the travel and emotion of being demoted… On the flipside, John McFarland was recalled to the Panthers but was a healthy scratch in a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues. It was McFarland’s first NHL recall.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login