Falcons Beat Pirates 5-2 In Season Opener

Published on October 3, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Springfield Falcons News Release


The Springfield Falcons started the season off right with a hard fought 5-2 victory over the Portland Pirates in front of an energetic and loud crowd of 5,267. The Falcons came out strong, soaring to an early 1-0 lead and never looked back.

The Falcons first goal of the season belonged to Stanley Cup Champion Chris Minard, early in the first period on a power play goal.

"We just stuck to our game plan," said Minard about the Falcons win tonight, "I think we had a good fore check going and the power play clicked a couple times tonight. Everybody was going, everyone is excited it was the home opener and we got 79 more games to go."

Assisting on the goal were Ryan Potulny and Taylor Chorney. This gave the Falcons an early 1-0 over the Pirates. However, Portland answered quickly with a goal by Marc-Andre Gragnani less than thirty seconds later making it a tie score.

It remained tied for most the first period until there was ten seconds left when Falcons left wing Liam Reddox scored to give the Falcons a 2-1 lead going into the second period. Captain Dean Arsene earned his first point as a member of the Falcons assisting on Reddox's goal.

"Anytime you get to wear a letter is an honor," Arsene said about being picked captain, "And I definitely feel like it is a privilege to wear it, and it's kind of on my shoulders, the responsibility to help lead this team on the ice and play as well as I can and lead by example."

Early in the second period, Charles Linglet scored for the Falcons to make it 3-1. Minard and Adam Henrich earned the assist. Henrich hustled to keep the puck alive for the Falcons followed by a very pretty pass by Minard to set up Linglet's first goal of the season.

"Charlie (Linglet) and I have played together before," said Minard about his assist to Linglet, "We have good chemistry together and we know where each other are and what made that play was just a little talk, communication. I was going behind the net and he was yelling and beat his guys out of the corner and just tried to put it in an area and he made a good shot."

Gragnani scored his second goal of the game for the Pirates to cut the lead to 3-2. The Falcons then answered back with back-to-back power play goals in the second period to make it 5-2 going into the final period.

The first of the power play goals was scored by Taylor Chorney at the 15:51 mark in the second period. Henrich scored the second of the power play goals with ten seconds left in the period, just like Reddox's goal in the first period.

The Falcons took advantages of their power play opportunities going 3 for 5 against the Pirates. Meanwhile, Portland went 0 for 6 against stellar play by Falcons penalty kill team and goalie Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk saved 31 of the 33 shots on goal.

"Specialty teams were good for us," said Head Coach Rob Daum about the Falcons special team's play, "The power play capitalized and the penalty killing was outstanding. We can't afford to take that many penalties, but we were fortunate that we were able to kill them off, because there were times in the game had they were able to score on power play they definitely could have taken momentum, but fortunately tonight we killed them."

The biggest excitement in the third period was in fight between the two teams, with Falcons Kip Brennan in the middle of it. It was a physical and intense game between the two teams leading up to the fight.

There were six Falcons (Henrich, Minard, Chris Armstrong, Chorney, Reddox, and Potulny) that recorded two points each. The Falcons also had five different players score their five goals. It was strong team effort for the Falcons earning their first win of the season.

The Falcons home crowd came up big in the season opener and the Falcons players and coaches took notice.

"It was a boisterous crowd," said Coach Daum, "It was a positive crowd and not beat crowd. It has an impact on your team, if the crowd is energetic and supportive regardless of the circumstances it has the ability to maintain momentum when you have it and help you get it back when you don't. Tonight was a very positive crowd and they were helpful."

It was a good start to the season for the Falcons as they take their game on the road tomorrow night at Providence at 4:05pm in the Dunkin Donuts Center. The next home game for the Falcons will be Friday October 16 at 7:30pm against the Manchester Monarchs.

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American Hockey League Stories from October 3, 2009


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