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Pirates Announce 2003-2004 Opponents

July 15, 2003 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Portland Pirates News Release


PORTLAND, ME - The Portland Pirates will strengthen old rivalries when they begin their eleventh season in the American Hockey League in October. The new AHL campaign begins on October 8th. Today, the league released the scheduling formula for the upcoming season which details which teams the Pirates will play and how often they will play them. Most of the dates for those games are still being finalized, but the Pirates were able to announce that they will begin the home half of their season on Friday, October 17 at 7:05 p.m. at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

The Pirates will be competing in the newly-named Atlantic Division of the AHL's Eastern Conference. The Pirates will play in the same division as the Hartford Wolf Pack, Lowell Lock Monsters, Manchester Monarchs, Providence Bruins, Springfield Falcons and Worcester IceCats. After playing the Wolf Pack just twice in each of the last two seasons and the Falcons just four times in that same time frame, the Pirates will have eight meetings with the Pack and ten with the Falcons in 2003-2004.

As part of the restructuring of the divisions, the Norfolk Admirals, Hershey Bears, Philadelphia Phantoms and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins move into the Eastern Conference. The Pirates will play Norfolk and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton four times each while facing Philadelphia, Hershey, Bridgeport and Albany twice. The only Eastern Conference team the Pirates will not play is the Binghamton Senators. The St. John's Maple Leafs are the only members of the Western Conference that the Pirates will play next season. The two teams continue their rivalry with four head-to-head meetings.

"Over the years, the Pirates have developed great rivalries with many member clubs," said Brian Petrovek, the Pirates' CEO. "Not only are those teams on our schedule this season, but we will play them more often, ensuring exciting and meaningful games for our fans. Again this year, we play Providence, perhaps our fiercest rival, ten times. We'll play a similar number of games against Worcester, Springfield and Manchester, and we'll play Lowell twelve times. With a new playoff format that pits division and conference foes against one another, all of our games against Eastern Conference teams, and in particular Atlantic Division rivals, will take on a greater importance much earlier in the season.

"The direction we have now taken as a league with this new scheduling formula, conference and division alignment and playoff format sets the stage for more intense competition from the start of the season while reducing team travel which is consistent with our player development mandate."

The Pirates will open the season on the road, making their first appearance at the Civic Center on Friday, October 17. The Pirates will be right back on Civic Center ice the next day, Saturday, October 18.

The Pirates played 70 of their 80 games last season against teams from their own conference, posting a record of 28-25-11-6. This season, 76 of their 80 games will be against conference teams. The Pirates finished the 2002-2003 season with a record of 33-28-13-6, good for eighth place in the Eastern Conference. They were eliminated by the Manitoba Moose in the Qualifying Round, 2-1.

The 2003-04 American Hockey League schedule will be released later this summer.



American Hockey League Stories from July 15, 2003


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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