Pirates playoff hopes continue to teeter on edge

The Portland Pirates are in the funks of all funks, and its situation that so fragile at the moment that one mistake leads to the team shattering like a sheet of plate glass.

The Pirates held a third-period lead, but Nicklas Jensen scored his second and third goals of the game to lift the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 4-3 victory in overtime before 5,329 at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

“It’s almost like guys are so rattled and caught up in this whole thing,” said Pirates head coach Scott Allen. “If that’s the case we’ve got to get this out of our system. We try to instill a certain level of confidence in guys, and that needs to translate on the ice. There is no reason for us to play panic hockey.”

With Sena Acolatse in the penalty box serving a double minor for high sticking, Nick Jensen tallied his second goal of the game at the 12:16 mark of the third period, lifting a backhander past Pirates’ goaltender Mike McKenna to even the game, 2-2.

Just 1:23 into three-on-three overtime, Mat Bodie sent a cross-ice pass to Jensen, who was left alone to complete the hat trick with a one-timer from the right circle.

“We played hard. It’s the breakdowns right now,” said Allen. “We’ve isolated the breakdowns to individual situations. It’s a unique situation because the way it’s happening. The way we’re giving up goals, it’s still not good right now.”

The Pirates (31-24-4-2) earned a point against the Wolf Pack, but they suffered their seventh consecutive loss (0-4-2-1) and only have two victories in their last 13 games (2-6-3-2), hanging on by the narrowest of margins to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Wolf Pack (33-27-2-0) have won four straight including the last two games against Portland, both times overcoming a third-period deficit, to pull into a tie with the Pirates on points (68). Despite being tied in points, the Pirates cling to the crossover playoff berth in the conference via percentage points with a one hundredth point lead over the Wolf Pack. The Rochester Americans, St. John’s IceCaps are also in the mix for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

The Pirates opened the scoring with the only goal of the first period, scored by Rob Schremp, snapping a 19-game goal scoreless drought his 400th career point.

Brady Skjei threw the puck into the slot where it was intercepted by Schremp, who snapped a wrist shot by Magnus Hellberg with 7:16 left in the period.

It was Schremp’s first goal since Jan. 29 when he scored at the Cross Insurance Arena against St. John’s.

“It was good to see Schremp get that goal,” said Allen. “It wasn’t a monkey. It was a 700-pound gorilla off his back with that goal.”

Hartford tied the game at 6:24 of the second period after Marek Hrivik sent a feed from the right half boards to the front of the net that was redirected by Chris Brown past McKenna.

With 41.5 seconds remaining in the period, Jensen scored the first goal of the game, ripping a one-timer from the slot, giving the Wolf Pack a 2-1 lead after forty minutes of play.

“It’s confidence right now,” Allen said. “The mind in a powerful thing. We are teetering on the glass is half empty instead of it being half full. When we were winning that glass was three-quarter full. That was the confidence we had. We’ve got to get through it. If these guys expect or want to play in the National Hockey League, they have got to have success in the American League first so until that happens there are a lot of guys that are going to have shattered dreams unless they can pull it together and start winning games in the AHL.”

The Pirates responded in the third period with goal just six minutes into the period.

Mackenzie Weegar whiffed on his shot attempt, but maintain control of the puck, skating around the net and threading the needle to Chase Balisy for an easy tap-in at the left post for his sixth goal of the season.

The Pirates regained the lead, 3-2, when Connor Brickley, off a defensive zone faceoff, won a foot race with Ryan Graves, sliding a backhander underneath Hellberg on the breakaway for an unassisted goal at the 9:38 mark of the third period.

“We know what we have to do,” said Allen. “We know that were in control as long as we take care of business.”

NOTES: Greg McKegg was recalled by the Florida Panthers earlier in the week due to an injury to Derek Mackenzie, who is expected to miss at least a week… John McFarland returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games with an illness… Mike Matheson also returned to the lineup after he missed the last five games with a hand injury…Jonathan Racine and Brent Regner were scratched due to injury. They remain day-to-day. John Brown, Tony Turgeon and Steven Hodges were healthy scratches.

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